Going Nuts
by Lilac Papillon
Summary: Parm is the brains, and Cain is the mouth. That is, until an amnesia incident turns out to be way more serious than everybody thought it was... - Revised and Beta'd as of June 26, 2008 -
1. The Brains and the Mouth

**Going Nuts **

_Revised as of July 24, 2008, adding more conversation between Cain and Parm, and fixing small errors, as well as using more subtle yet descriptive verbs and other add-ons. Occurs before "Still Waters Freeze"._

**A/N:** I don't know where I got the idea, cliché, yes, but I just had to write about it. This is not one of my best, just something I thought up, so don't expect characters to be completely IC and don't expect the structure to be so great. Uh, yeah, anyway, read on.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Booster.

* * *

**Chapter 1:**

**The Brains and the Mouth**

"Paaaaarm!"

"Oh, dear," the seventeen-year-old murmured nervously as Artha Penn approached him, hands akimbo. "Er, I didn't do anything! It was Lance!"

"No it wasn't!" Lance said, whipping his head at Parm. Then stopped and reconsidered what he said. "Uh, well...I'm not so sure."

This got an eye-roll from his older brother. "It wasn't you, Lance," Artha responded to his younger brother, who looked very relieved afterwards. He turned his attention back to his best friend, Parmon Sean. "I'm guessing it's Parm's fault."

"M – my fault?" Parm squeaked.

"Well, at least it's not my fault!" Lance said happily. His blue dragon, Fracshun, grinned. "But I wonder what Parm did."

"I didn't do anything, I swear!" Parm argued.

"Oh, yes, you did," Artha said. Beau, Artha's dragon, walked next to his rider. "There's a race happening in a few minutes, and I can't find the level four thrusting gear! I asked Kitt, and she didn't have it! Unless somebody stole it, I'm guessing it was you who took it, since you're in charge of gear."

"Er, now that you mention it, I did take the gear..." Parm started, standing up and placing his work aside.

"Yeah, well, why did you take it in the first place?" Artha wanted to know.

He instantly regretted asking.

"Well, see, I noticed that the gear had been acting a bit dysfunctional these past few races, so this morning I took it, analyzed its exterior and interior modeling and utilities and found an detrimental error in the maneuvering programming, thus leading to a elongated activation that would be considerably critical if needing to place the thrusters in reverse and braking, so I'm working on fixing it and if possible adding a bit more strength to intensify the thrusters so when halting will be immediate and prompt."

Silence. "Uh, can you fix it?" Artha asked, shifting his eyes sheepishly as Lance held what could only be his aching head.

"Didn't I just say I was fixing it?" Parm breathed, narrowing his eyes.

"Unfortunately the things that come out of your mouth are unknown to the ears of us normal people, Professor," Kitt Wonn piped up, stepping inside with Wyldfyr and standing beside Artha. She shook her head and extended her hand. "Look, the race is about to begin. Just give Artha back the gear! I'm sure the problem isn't that bad?"

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention that it will physically combust if the heat intensity is rapidly high, thus causing other gear around it to also explode," Parm added.

More silence. Lance finally broke it by saying "What?" and then Beau chuckling.

Parm sighed. "Oh, forget it," he said, turning away to get back to fixing the gear. "Just borrow a level one thrusting gear from Kitt."

Kitt scoffed. "Oh yeah, and so I'll just race without my gear. I only have one thrusting gear, Parmesan, and despite being level one, there's no way I'm letting Artha use it!"

"Hey, c'mon, Kitt, I'm the leader of this racing crew," Artha said, turning his head to the best racer in Dragon City. "Can't I use it just this once, please?"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Keep it up and you'll be saying hi to my fist, stable boy," she growled softly, her eyes telling him she was joking. Artha laughed.

There was suddenly a loud _stomp _from behind them, followed by a cackle. "Hello, stable brats," the voice drawled.

Artha's smile disappeared as he rolled his eyes. Parm meanwhile shrieked and whirled right around as Moordryd Paynn and his dragon, Decepshun, approached the Penn Stables, along with Cain and Coershun. Beau growled and Wyldfyr snarled at Moordryd's dragon, who snarled back.

"What do you want, Paynn?" Kitt demanded, reaching for a mag-staff. "Another butt-kicking, probably!"

"Wow, what a warm welcome!" Cain said, smirking.

"And what wonderful guests we have there today!" Kitt retorted, slitting her eyes as she placed a hand on her hip. "First we're late for a race, and then you guys arrive. Isn't that just great?"

"No, we're just here to award you with 'The Most Sarcastic Brat' Award," Cain replied, apparently enjoying himself. He gave her a look as sincere as Word Paynn's smile. "It's a real honor to get that, you know."

"Enough, Cain," Moordryd told his Dragon Eye second-in-command and fellow friend, then turned back to the Penn Racing Crew, smirking as he lowered the bottom visor of his helmet. "Since it seems like there's nothing else to do, we're here to take your dragons."

"Well, you could have chosen a better time than this!" Artha retorted, glaring at his proclaimed rival. "We need to race! Don't you compete in the races too, Moordryd?"

"I'm taking a break," Moordryd replied coolly, reaching for an energy drain whip. Cain extended a mag-staff, cackling as they advanced forward slowly. "Now, give us your dragons, or else!"

"Or else what?" Kitt said just as coolly, spinning her mag-staff. "You don't scare us. Right, guys?"

"Er, yeah, you don't scare us! Not a bit!" Parm said, despite his voice being shaky and his knees wobbling as he feebly extended his own mag-staff.

"Lance, get the flash stick!" Artha told his little brother, who saluted him and ran off to get it. He turned back to Moordryd just in time to see the young leader of the Dragon Eyes jump off his dragon, diving forward with a yell.

Artha quickly ducked and punched forward, but Moordryd moved away swiftly, snapping his energy drain whip forward.

"Beau, get the dragons out of here!" Artha cried, throwing himself onto the ground as the snare of the whip nearly got his head. Beau grunted and shook his head, wanting to fight Decepshun, who was crawling near with a malicious smirk on her face.

"Beau, do it!" Artha told him, and pushed Moordryd back with his mag-staff. Beau was about to lead the dragons away, but not before ramming into Decepshun, who tried slamming her tail down on Beau.

While the fight between Moordryd and Artha and their dragons ensued, Cain was preparing to go after Lance, before getting, unbeknownst to him before it happened of course, struck down by Kitt. Lance and Fracshun ran off immediately, while Wyldfyr reared back on his hind legs and attacked Coershun.

"Take one more step near him and I'll scrape your scales clean!" Kitt yelled, and charged forward again. Cain quickly dove out of the way just as the staff came down hard, striking ground. The man groaned and looked up to see Parm backing away slowly. Cain quickly lunged forward, grabbing his foot and pulling it back so that Parm fell to the ground.

"Ow!" Parm groaned, shaking his head as he opened one eye groggily, and shrieked as Cain's mag-staff prepared to strike his face. He quickly lifted up his mag-staff to block the attack, and the impact of the blow caused him to wince. Parm quickly scurried out of the way, and was just about to run, but not before Coershun mag-blasted Parm straight into a wall.

"Parm!" Artha called, his eyes widening, and grunted as Moordryd's whip grasped his arm. He quickly used his mag-staff to cut off the energy connection, but Moordryd pulled out his own mag-staff and jabbed forward, then sideways. Artha blocked off the first blow, and managed to just barely avoid the second.

"Stable brat!" Moordryd taunted, and kicked forward.

"Daddy's boy!" Artha returned, blocking the kick, then grinned. "Hey, that's not bad!"

He yelped as Moordryd's foot came in contact with the side of his face. Artha stumbled to the ground as Moordryd yelled, "Shut up!" and continued his attack.

"Daddy's boy?" Cain scoffed as he attacked Parm with his mag-staff, who dodged and screamed. "Is that the best your little friend can come up with?"

"Well, you see..." Parm was about to say, but before he could talk Coershun had gotten Wyldfyr pinned down at a corner and was charging at him. "Oh, no!"

There was a deep, rumbling roar before Parm's dragon, Cyrano, collided with Coershun, sending Cain's dragon off balance. "Cyrano, thank the Magna Draconis!" Parm gasped, grateful to see his dragon.

Cyrano simply nodded, before Coershun bashed into Cyrano, sending the dragon a bit off balance itself. The green dragon growled at Coershun, who smirked and decided to use a mag-blast assault instead, thus bringing Cyrano to the ground.

"Oh dear!" Parm said.

"Looks like your dragon is done for, stable brat!" Cain sneered.

Parm backed away, but then he shook his head and glared at Moordryd's minion. "You know, your dragon has no chance at all against Cyrano!" Parm said, picking up his mag-staff. "Without any type of strength-based gear and a more agile and sleek build of body, it will lead to my Bull-class dragon still being able to stay upwards with no energy being depleted as much as your Psi-class dragon's energy is lowering more quickly."

It wasn't as confusing as most of Parm's words, but the way he said it left Cain standing there, mouth agape, before he growled. "Gee, thanks for the little lesson, Professor," he muttered, gripping his mag-staff. "But I'm sure your little lecture can be used elsewhere."

Parm, knees still knocking against each other and his body vibrating like a sofa chair, still held up his mag-staff with a defiant look in his eyes. "I w – I won't let you hurt Cyrano!" he barked (or yipped). "No matter how much you threaten me!"

Cain chuckled. "We'll see about that, nerd," he said. "Unlike you, I don't need to overanalyze every little thing, I just act."

"Cain, get their dragons!" Moordryd called from his fight.

"I'm trying!" Cain responded back, grabbing and securing a trapping net and aiming it at Parm. He smirked smugly. "So, with a scientific example, I'll need to take care of you first to demonstrate."

Parm's bravado started to fade away as he realized the probabilities of conquering through his current situation. Which, if the possibilities were rounded, was 1.32 repeating over quite a big number.

"Oh, stop it!" he groaned aloud, courage returning to him as he raised his mag-staff. "I need to stop thinking and just do things impulsively for once!"

He then did what first came to mind: he charged straight at Cain with a battlecry more higher-pitched than Moordryd's.

And Cain did something that he did not think he would do: think about what was this guy on, which caused a delayed reaction as the staff smacked into his foot.

Meanwhile, the noise of things being tossed around filled the air. "I can't find the flash stick!" Lance's voice cried from one of the stable rooms.

"Forget the flash stick!" Kitt yelled. "Just grab something we can use!" She had decided to go after Moordryd with Artha, and was now preparing to attack Moordryd, who had gotten himself pressed to a wall.

At that moment, Decepshun activated a green bashing gear, an attack ball flying at the girl's face. Kitt gasped and was pulled away by Artha as the ball hit the wall, ricocheted off a pole, and flew at two charging men with mag-staff in both hands.

More specifically, Parm as the ball collided with his head, and went flying high into the air.

"Oh no," Kitt said, her expression turning from anger to worry. Cyrano and Beau gasped, and Wyldfyr's eyes widened.

"One down, three to go," Moordryd murmured, though he wasn't exactly smiling.

"Parm!" Artha called, his eyes widening in horror. "Are you okay?"

Parm didn't seem to hear Artha. Instead, a goofy grin crossed his face as he raised a finger. "See, now, to calculate and round of the proximity and frequency of how much speed a dragon can compile..." he said woozily, before he collapsed onto the ground in an unconscious heap.

Cain took a few steps back. "Okaaaay, I'm getting out of here," he said nervously, turning around to run like the wind, only to have that same attack ball come down on _his_ head. The last thing he saw before everything went black was an explosion of stars, lights, and a memo to buy milk.

Coershun screeched with concern. "Cain? Cain!" Moordryd called to the second unconscious heap, and shook his head with a groan. "Oh, great, just what we need."

"Yeah, just what we need," Artha repeated stiffly. He ran over to Parm's side and shook the man by the shoulders as he knelt. "C'mon, Parmesan, get up!"

"What's going on?" Lance asked, then gasped when he saw Parm and Cain, as well with Fracshun, who hid behind Beau. "Aaah! What happened?"

"Moordryd's stupid dragon knocked Parm and Cain out!" Artha told him.

Decepshun screeched angrily. "Calm down, Decepshun," Moordryd told her, resting a hand on his dragon's head, then looked back at his rival irritably. "And my dragon's not as stupid as yours."

Beau shot Moordryd a dirty look. "Can we get back to the subject here?" Kitt snapped. She folded her arms. "Okay, Professor's knocked out, and so is your annoying lackey. That gives us less headaches than we already have. Now, if you excuse me, I need a drink."

She then walked away. "Kitt, Parm and Cain are knocked out!" Lance reminded her.

"He's got a point, Kitt," Artha said sternly as she got herself a glass of water. "This is no time for a water break!"

"In my opinion, this is a time to get out of here, so do me a favor, and move out of the way so I can get Mr. Snarky back to the compound as well?" Moordryd said.

Kitt walked back over to where Parm and Cain were lying, and promptly splashed her glass of water over the two.

Lance, Beau and Fracshun burst out laughing. "Good idea, though they're still not coming to," Artha said, feeling extremely awkward over this whole situation.

"Fine then," Kitt said, smiling, then bent down next to both of them. She studied both unconscious, and wet, figures, before closing her eyes, leaning closer downwards, taking a deep breath, and proceeding to scream, _"GET UP ALREADY!"_

The reaction was immediate, as they both screamed and sat up instantly, looking around. "Hey, good job," Artha said, looking at Kitt, who gave a smug smile. Moordryd just muttered something and Lance continued laughing. Artha patted Parm on the back, who was coughing from choking on the water. "Good to have you back, Parmesan."

"Parmesan?" his friend repeated, though his tone was lower and his pitch less squeaky than usual. He frowned. "You know, I think the last time I checked, I wasn't a type of cheese."

"Parm's back!" Lance grinned, throwing his arms in the air.

But Parm just stared blankly at the little redhead. "Parm?" he asked. "Who's Parm? And just who are you, squirt?"

"That would be you, apparently," Moordryd said, getting on Decepshun. "Let's go, Cain!"

But the strong man didn't seem to notice. "Cain?" he asked, rather politely and primly. He turned to Parm with a wide-eyed look. "Is that supposed to be you? Or the child, perhaps? Er, maybe that guy over there with the burnt racing coat! Or that girl?"

Coershun went up to his rider, who instead of getting on him screamed and cowered back. "Wh - wh – what does it want?" Cain cried, shaking from head to toe.

"That's your dragon, Coershun, remember?" Moordryd explained, rather impatiently. "Now quit fooling around! We have to get back to the compound!"

Cain just looked even more confused. "My dragon? Compound?" he questioned. He shook his head and stood up to pace. "No, no, I'm not sure I really remember any of that, really..."

"Hey, I don't know about you, but it sounds drac to me," Parm remarked casually. Kitt, Artha and Lance whipped their heads to look at Parm with utmost disbelief.

"Uh, drac, Parm?" Artha gasped. "These are the guys who came here, tried stealing your dragon, hurt him, and are also planning to start a dragon-human war!"

"My dragon?" Parm asked. Cyrano came up beside Parm and looked at him, but Parm just stared back. "Wait, this is my dragon? And, come again, but who are you? All of you?"

"Parm!" Kitt seethed, slapping her hands on his shoulders and shaking him like a rag doll. "Quit joking around! And that means you too, Cain!"

"What? But, but, I didn't do anything!" Cain cried, putting his hands up as he looked around.

"Yes, you did, Cain! You're making me really annoyed, and that's bad!" Moordryd yelled.

"Oh, my! Sorry, er...whoever you are!" Cain squeaked, absolutely overwhelmed.

"Guys..." Lance started.

"Not now, Lance," Kitt said. "First I have to deal with our friend here who is just making my day a whole lot better."

"Gee, whoever you are, you deserve 'The Most Sarcastic Brat' Award," Parm drawled at Kitt with narrow eyes. "Trust me, it's just as great as getting a burn from a high-level thrusting gear, which I think I'd rather get instead of you badgering me, woman."

"Actually, it's not just that," Cain started, standing up straight to attention and raising his finger in an informative manner. "See, the temperature and heat capacity of the flames from thrusting gear, plus dangerous red draconium working in tandem with other specific properties of the equipment can cause you not only to have your skin torched and excessively damaged but to also melt and turn into ashes, as does the torched part of your arm."

Silence. Complete, utter, silence. Jaws dropped open. Eyes boggled. A tumbleweed rolled past and the scurrying of rats could be heard. Well, the last part not so much.

"Uh, yeah...Moordryd, what did he say?" Artha asked, turning to Moordryd.

"Ask the brainy brat, Penn, not me!" Moordryd shot back. "I only understand half of the technoscales anybody can tell me."

"Parm, what did he say?" Artha asked, moving Kitt aside and grabbing his friend's arm.

Parm scoffed. "Sheesh, how should I know? I'm not a thesaurus," was what the brainiac replied dryly.

Nine pairs of eyes were glued to both men.

"What?" both of them asked in unison.

* * *

**To Be Continued **


	2. The True Definition of Doomed

**Going Nuts**

**A/N:** Part two. Like I said earlier, the idea might be slightly cliché, characters might be OOC and structure might not be so good.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Booster.

* * *

**Chapter 2: **

**The True Definition of Doomed**

"Argh!" Kitt screamed. She snagged Cain by his shoulders and stared straight into his eyes. Her words were loud, clear, and slow. _"Are you in there, Parmon Sean?"_

"Ow!" Cain gasped, rubbing his ear. "I'm not deaf! And no, he's not!"

"Keep listening to her and you might become deaf soon enough," Parm commented offhandly.

"Watch it there, Cain," Kitt growled, her eyes shifting towards Parm, who stood with his arms folded, staring blankly at all of them. "Artha, how do we return them to their normal bodies?"

"Actually..." Moordryd started. "I don't think they switched bodies."

"Hey, one's the Professor and the other is your second-hand wisecracker," Artha said. "I'm guessing they switched bodies."

"Or they have that weird thing where they lose their memory!" Lance piped up.

"Amnesia," Moordryd explained, looking at Cain, then at Parm. "Decepshun's attack ball must've conked them on the heads hard enough to make them lose their memory."

"Well, it makes sense...kind of..." Artha mused.

"We should go ask Mortis about this," Lance told Artha.

"No, Lance! Moordryd and Cain are here, so we can't reveal our location, and that I'm the Dragon Booster," Artha whispered back hastily. He shifted his eyes. "We have to solve this problem ourselves."

He stood up and turned to Parm and Cain. "Alright, so you guys have amnesia," Artha told them promptly, causing Beau to shake his head in amazement. "Do you remember either one of us?"

Both of them turned to look at Lance, Artha, Kitt and Moordryd. Their gazes were then turned to Beau, Wyldfyr, Decepshun, Coershun, Cyrano and Fracshun, who were discussing something in the dragon, though the glares that Decepshun and Coershun shot at the other dragons seemed to reassure the rivalry.

"I don't think so," Parm replied.

"Okay then, uh..." Artha said, then ran over and grabbed the thrusting gear Parm had been trying to fix. "Something's wrong with this gear. Can you tell what the problem is?"

Cain was the one who immediately took it into his hands. He studied it carefully, grabbing one of Parm's gizmos lying around and typing in a few commands, before replying, "Well, there's a small error in the maneuvering programming of this gear, which can lead to a prolonged activation that would be extremely detrimental if needing to place the thrusters in reverse and braking..."

"That's exactly what Parm said," Artha sighed, cutting Cain's babbling off as he took the gear away. He paused. "Or is Cain as smart as Parm?"

"I highly doubt it," Moordryd replied, to which Cain glared at him rather inconspicuously. "Look, I need to get out of here, so let's refresh their memories so Cain and I can get back to the Dragon Eye compound."

At that moment Word's face popped up from Moordryd's comm-link. "Moordryd, do you have the dragons I asked for?" Word asked his son.

"Not yet, Father, but I'm working on it," Moordryd replied, ignoring Artha and Kitt's dark gazes directed towards him.

"Be quick," Word told him, his gaze cold. "Oh, yes, I also need you to complete a very important task for me."

"Yes?" Moordryd asked, his eyes brightening at the sound of the clearly implied importance.

"I need more coffee," Word replied, dangling a coffee cup from his finger. "We're out."

Moordryd's mouth dropped open and Artha's eyebrows raised in raw amusement. "Bu - bu - but," Moordryd stammered. He narrowed his eyes. "But, I already bought some yesterday evening!"

"Well, it wasn't enough," Word said, tossing a two-inch tall canister away. "Now hurry up! And make sure it's not any of that disgusting decaffeinated stuff." With that he cut off the connection, leaving Moordryd staring open-mouthed at the spot where the comm-screen popped up before.

"But - " Moordryd repeated once more, before giving up and rolling his eyes with a shake of his head.

"So fill us in," Parm asked as he stared at his own reflection through the red thrusting gear. "Who are we?"

"Well, your name is Parmesan!" Lance responded immediately with a grin.

"Lance!" Artha warned. He looked back at his friend. "Actually, it's Parmon Sean, but they pretty much sound the same."

"No kidding," Parm muttered. "Wonder what my parents were thinking."

"Okay, whatever," Kitt said. She pointed at each man with each name. "So you are Parmon Sean, and you are Cain. Am I right, or am I right?"

They exchanged glances. "Uh, yes?" Parm said.

"Good," Kitt acknowledged with a nod of her head. "Okay, so Parm is on our side. He's the technician and guy who knows a bunch of words we don't know and barely understand." She pointed at Cain. "Cain is on Moordryd's side. He's stupid, cowardly, sarcastic and he's the second-in-command of the Dragon Eyes."

"I object, I am not stu – wait, a second-in-command?" Cain marveled, his eyes widening. "Er, I'm not so good with leadership. You know, what this Parm has as an occupation and a living sounds far more interesting. And you guys don't seem that bad at all, quite helpful actually, if not, well, edgy."

"But you are _bad!_" Kitt said. "You are _not_ on _our_ side! Parm is!"

"Me, siding with a bunch of stable brats?" Parm scoffed, to Artha and Lance's chagrin. "Uh, yeah, thanks, but no thanks. Hey, Medraut or whatever your name was, is the second-in-command position open?"

"No way, egghead, you would _never_ make that good a second-in-command," Moordryd retorted.

"Er...well, uh...oh! I can make cookies!" Parm added, with a wide, hopeful grin.

"Oh, great!" Kitt groaned, folding her arms as she sulked. "So now one's the other."

"Hey, which is worse?" Artha asked her with one eyebrow arched. "Two Cains or two Parms?"

Kitt actually thought about this. "Forget I asked," Artha sighed, realizing she'd probably reply that either way, it was bad. "Maybe it's not so bad. Maybe there's still some Cain and Parm in, well, Cain and Parm, instead of Parm and Cain."

"What?" said Lance.

"Ah, forget it," Artha mumbled.

"No, wait, I see where you're going!" Kitt said, her eyes lighting up in understanding. "We've got to find out if they have some shred of their old selves in, well, themselves!"

"You know, it would be better to demonstrate it instead of saying it," Moordryd suggested. "And can you be anymore faster? I'm pretty sure I have to be stuck with you guys until Cain gets his memory and personality back."

"But what about the coffee?" Artha asked.

"That's why you need to get his memory back, because he has drakkals," Moordryd growled. He turned to Cain. "Okay, who am I?"

"Moordryd," Cain replied.

"Hey, their memories are coming back!" Lance remarked happily.

"No, actually, I just heard all of you call each other several names, so I assumed that those were your names," Cain exclaimed. "Oh yes, and Artha's name is on the back of that jacket of his, though oddly backwards."

"Yeah, I always wondered why," Artha murmured, trying to look at his back. "Beau, does it really say my name on dad's jacket?" Beau nodded, grunting.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Lance said, jumping up with fists of determination. "And it's so drac, that it's definitely gonna work!"

"Huh, what kind of plan good enough to work could you come up with, mini brat?" Moordryd taunted with a smirk.

"I said it was drac, and it is. Just watch the master," Lance said slyly, picking up something. "We'll start with...the yellow-bellied newt!"

At this Lance dangled a small little yellow creature with a very long blue tongue by its tail. Parm instantly screamed like a girl, as did Cain, who tried hiding behind each other.

"Well, they both seem to be afraid of yellow-bellied newts," Artha noted.

"While Cain should be the only one screaming like a sissy," Moordryd added.

"But that newt has red eyes!" Cain gasped, pointing a shaking finger at the small creature while Parm looked ready to faint.

"Nonononoputitdownputitdown!" Kitt, Artha and Moordryd screamed, reaching for Lance's hand. Confused, Lance let go, while Beau brought his foot down on the creature who slipped by and scurried away.

"But it's just a yellow-bellied newt," Lance said, blinking in confusion.

"The red-eyed yellow-bellied newts are hazardous," Cain explained. "They have sharper teeth and their genus' enamel is contained with highly poisonous venom that with a bite, can instantaneously cause a living subject bitten by it have utterly dangerous cases of dizziness, vomiting and disorientation, later on eventually causing cerebral and respiratory damage, and it is needed to be quickly extracted and cured before the effects exacerbates and the victim suffers death!"

Silence. "It means that red-eyed yellow-bellied newts are deadly," Moordryd translated after the moment.

"Drac!" Lance breathed, apparently impressed on how Moordryd can translate technobabble. He turned back to Cain. "So why didn't you just say so?" he asked, head tilted.

"But, I did!" Cain cried, blinking.

"I didn't hear the phrase 'red-eyed yellow-bellied newts are deadly' in whatever you said at all," Parm told him curtly.

"I clearly said – "

"Please, no!" Kitt hissed. "Don't say it again!"

"Okay then, Plan B!" Lance said, raising his finger.

"And just what would that be?" Moordryd jeered, unimpressed with Lance's first plan.

"Well, do we still have time for the race?" Lance questioned.

"Actually, yeah, we do," Kitt murmured. She snapped her fingers. "Good idea, let's race and get back to this later!"

"Nope, that's not my plan!" Lance said. He smiled. "My plan is to let Parm and Cain race."

"What?" both of them cried. _"No!"_

"There is absolutely _no chance_ in _a thousand years_ that you are getting me on that dragon and in that race!" Cain snapped, pointing at Coeshun and glaring at everybody.

- - -

"So what was that about there being absolutely _no chance _in _a thousand years_ that we were getting you on that dragon and in this race?" Artha asked smugly through Cain's comm screen.

Moordryd, Artha, Kitt and Lance were in their seats at a Street Race crowd to watch from above. "If anybody asks what I'm doing around Penn Racing and their viewpoint, I will scrape your scales clean," Moordryd hissed at Artha. "I don't need to be here!"

"Whatever, Moordryd," Artha responded, looking through his binocs. "There's Parm and Cain. This plan of yours better work, Lance."

"It's fullproof!" Lance grinned, biting into a Draconee-Yum candy bar.

"But Cyrano is a Bull-class dragon," Kitt reminded him. "Bull-class type dragons don't run very quickly and aren't good racing material."

"I know, I know, I got that covered," Lance told her, dismissing it with his hand. "I gave him some thrusting gear."

"Moordryd, what is taking you?" Word's voice growled as a comm-screen popped up from Moordryd's wrist comm.

"A minor problem, father," Moordryd explained, turning the screen away from the Penn Stables team. "This will take some time."

"What?" Word hollered. "Get back here right now!"

"But I still don't have the dragons!" Moordryd protested.

"Not _just_ the dragons, you incompetent fool!" Word growled as he slammed a coffee cup he was holding down. "The coffee! I need those now!" The impact caused his coffee cup to shatter, leaving him holding nothing but the handle. "Oh, while you're at it, buy me a new coffee cup."

"But - " Moordryd started.

_"Do not make pathetic excuses!"_ Word roared. _"COFFEE AND DRAGONS!"_ The connection was cut and Moordryd muttered something obscene under his breath.

"Hey, the race is about to begin!" Lance announced, pointing forward at the tracks.

"Moordryd, Artha, I don't want to race!" Cain's voice whined from Moordryd's wrist comm.

"And why not?" Moordryd asked with an eyetwitch, ready to yell at somebody.

"These dragons, they go really faaaaAAAAAAAHHH!"

That was precisely the moment the dragons took off as the green flags were waved, and Cain was now screaming for his life, clutching on the grips of Coershun's saddle as the Psi-class dragon started running. "Too fast, too fast, _way _too fast! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Parm, you gotta go faster!" Artha said, contacting Parm with a comm-screen link.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Parm growled back as he stared ahead aggressively. "But this dragon is way too slow! Who's idea was it to let me use a heavyset dragon?"

"I think I'm gonna need coffee myself," Kitt groaned, her hands pressed to her head. "What is this world coming to?"

"Oblivion," Moordryd told her with a smirk. "Once my father succeeds in starting a dragon-human war, the world will be destroyed!"

"Not now, though, I just got an upgraded version of Battleground Dragon!" Lance said, grabbing the binocs from Artha and looking through them.

Meanwhile on the racing track, Cain was still screaming, his eyes wide and his knuckles turning pale as he gripped very tightly to the saddle, while Parm was trying to speed Cyrano up with every method he could figure out. He pressed a button on the saddle and activated the thrusting gear, speeding forward and placing himself right next to Coershun and Cain.

"Hey, wait, I recognize that thrusting gear!" Cain said.

"Yeah?" Parm scoffed with a smirk. "So what?"

"That's the gear with that problem!" Cain said, trying to remember something. "See, if the gear is used if it's still malfunctioning, it will combust almost immediately and - "

He didn't need to say another word as the thrusting gear suddenly glowed red and made a very irritating sound. "Uh, Artha, what's happening?" Parm asked nervously, contacting Artha again as he turned the screen towards it.

"The gear!" Artha gasped, his eyes boggling. "Parm, quick, mag it off before - "

There was suddenly a very loud and, sadly, expected explosion. Smoke and parts of thrusting gear were flying everywhere, and a scream filled the air as Parm was ejected into it.

"...it explodes," Artha finished belatedly, and sheepishly.

Parm crashed onto Cain, causing Coershun to go off balance and crash into a sign on the track. The other racers zoomed past with their dragons, while Cyrano shook his head woozily and got up from the ground.

"Look at the pretty dragons..." Parm mumbled woozily as dragons raced past him and around his head.

"Well, this race is done with, and so is your little plan," Moordryd sneered at the rather calm redhead. "What now, stable brat?"

"Plan C, and more candy," Lance said, peeling the wrapper off another Draconee-Yum bar. "Lots of it, in fact."

- - -

"No way!" Artha groaned.

"Look," Lance explained. "It's simple. All you gotta do is do what I say, and that'll refresh their memories."

"You know, Lance..." Artha said, gritting his teeth. "I don't know _how_ this is gonna refresh Parm and Cain's memories at all!"

"I'm going to have to agree with stable brat, for once," Moordryd said, his voice cracking.

Moordryd and Artha were both on the ground, bent down while Kitt stood on top of their backs, balancing a rather heavy load of candy bars inside two buckets, hanging from each end of a mag-staff set on her back with a really thick Draconee-Crunch bar in between her teeth.

"You know, I don't think this will make them remember anything, Lance," Kitt tried saying through the Draconee-Crunch bar.

"What was that?" Lance asked, grabbing a Draconee-Yum bar from one of the buckets and peeling the wrapper to take a bite.

"She said - aaah! - something," Artha squeaked painfully.

"I said - " Kitt started.

"You sled?" Lance asked, swallowing it down. "Never knew you used white sledding gear."

"She wants to know if this isn't just to make us look _stupid!"_ Moordryd gasped hastily, his arms wobbling. Beau was watching it all from behind Lance, grinning like it was Christmas morning.

"I'm gonna sneeze!" Artha whined.

"Do it and you're dead!" Kitt scowled.

"What? Dread?"

"Make you guys look stupid?" Lance repeated, giving them an innocent glance. "Not a chance. Your memories are coming back now, right, guys?" The boy turned to look at Cain and Parm.

"Um, well...not really," Cain replied truthfully.

"But trust me, this is one memory I will always remember," Parm snickered.

"Well, gee, that's too bad," Lance said, pulling out a camera. "Say 'Parmesan!'"

He quickly snapped a shot of Moordryd, Artha and Kitt staring in disbelief at Lance. Kitt spat out the candy bar from her mouth. "LANCE!" she snarled angrily.

"Ah, my back!" Artha gasped, his left arm shooting up to his back.

"No, wait, Artha, don't - " Moordryd cried, but the trio lost their balance as they all fell down screaming, Draconee-Yum bars (and Kitt's special Draconee-Crunch) spilling all over the place. Beau laughed before taking Lance's candy bar out of his hand.

"Argh, Lance!" Artha groaned, glaring at what was supposed to be his blood brethren.

"Sorry," Lance said, quickly hiding behind Beau. His eyes shifted to the photo in his hand. "Oh, ho, totally drac, you guys all look like doofuses!"

"Ugh, I'll make YOU look like a doofus! What about Parm and Cain?"

"Well, I seem to be relevantly fine..." Cain mused.

"Fine?" Kitt screeched. "This is anything _but_ fine! Now Cain's Parm and Parm's Cain!" She grabbed Artha and Moordryd's shirts and pulled them forward. "This is the true definition of doomed!"

"Actually, no it, isn't," Cain started. "The true definition of doomed is when a tragic fate has been placed upon - "

_"Like I said!"_ Kitt groaned, cutting off Cain and pulling Artha and Moordryd closer as her eyes boggled. "This is the _true _definition of _DOOMED!"_

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	3. Of Craziness, Candy Bars and VIDDGames

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **Part 3. What I said earlier in the earlier parts.

**Disclaimer:** Booster Dragon own don't I.

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

**Of Craziness, Candy Bars and VIDDGames**

While Cain fiddled around with Parm's gadgets and mechanics and Parm was busy on the lookout for yellow-bellied newts, Lance was playing his upgraded version of Battleground Dragon with his friends who were online.

Meanwhile, Artha was trying to calm down Kitt, who had gone berserk (as Parm said; as Moordryd said, "you sure it's not that time of the month?"; as Cain said simply frustrated), and Moordryd was dragged into helping her, while Beau chowed down on some of the candy bars that Kitt had dropped.

"Kitt, you gotta calm down!" Artha said, following a frantic Kitt around.

"Calm down? _Calm down? _How in the name of the Magna Draconis do you think I can possibly calm down with our current situation?" she hissed, flailing her arms in the air.

"Drink some water," Moordryd told her. "Or tea. Whichever calms your nerves first. And if it's coffee, don't drink that, seriously. Give it to me. I'll need it."

"Kitt, it is seriously not that bad!" Artha tried explaining. "Look, let's have a mini-race. Last one to the Big Chow is a yellow-bellied newt!"

"_Yellow-bellied newt? WHERE?"_ Parm shrieked, bolting upwards with a mag-staff grasped in his hands.

"On your shoulder," Moordryd shot back before Artha could tell him there was no yellow-bellied newt. The previous brains of the group started running in circles, screaming for somebody to get it off. Beau used his tail to knock Parm to the ground before chuckling.

"Beau, start being useful and help us calm down Kitt!" Artha told him.

Beau shrugged and promptly tripped Kitt as well.

"I don't think that's helping!" Artha yelled irritably.

"Your brother isn't helping either," Moordryd pointed out as injury.

"Hey, I came up with Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C," Lance responded as he pressed buttons. "I did enough work. Now it's your turn to face doom."

"What are we gonna do?" Kitt continued ranting, standing up and walking around. "I mean, I'm the one in this team who's supposed to make the wisecracks, not Parm! And him saying what I would say is gonna drive me crazy! Next thing you know he's pulling bank jobs and dragon thefts and Magna Draconis knows what, ending up in the slammer!"

"Kitt..." Artha started, but she continued on.

"I mean, if Parm joins Moordryd's side, then we have to get Cain, and it's gonna give me an even _bigger_ headache if he starts talking like Parm does!"

"Kitt..." Artha said again, his voice rising.

"And if Cain joins Moordryd's side, a dragon-human war is _definitely _gonna start, because now Cain's the brains, and he's gonna be smarter and – "

Artha grabbed Kitt and promptly kissed her. "Oh, bleck, cooties!" Lance gagged while Moordryd and Beau's eyes widened.

"Hey, it's probably the only way to make her stop!" Artha retorted, then stepped back and looked at Kitt, who was frozen in place with her eyes wide and her mouth open. "You okay?"

Kitt rolled her eyes in reply, but her face turned a shade of pink. "Dirty," she snarled.

Artha only smirked back, quite proud of himself apparently. "Hey, if it's needed, it's needed," Artha said, picking up a Draconee-Yum bar from the ground, peeling the wrapper off, and taking a bite.

"Well, since that's settled, can I play anyone in Battleground Dragon?" Lance asked, looking around. "I beat Spratt and my other friends already, so I wanna kick someone else's butt for a change."

"Not now, Lance," Artha said as Beau tried stealing Artha's Draconee-Yum bar. "We have a bigger issue, remember?"

"I'd rather not think about the issue," Moordryd grumbled. "I'm dealing with two: angry father and lost memories."

"Okay then," Lance said, and suddenly shoved a Battlegrounds Dragon controller in Moordryd's hands. "Let's play!"

Moordryd simply stared at the VIDDGame screen of two dragons preparing to face each other. "Uh..." he said, blinking twice.

"Game on!" Lance remarked, beginning the game.

"Wait, I, but how – " Moordryd stuttered, then groaned and began pressing buttons wildly. Decepshun came over to Moordryd and watched over his shoulder at Moordryd's screen.

"AAAH!" Cain's voice cried from another room.

"What's wrong, Cain?" Artha asked.

"I was deducing how to modify the rappelling gear to fire out at a more elongated range, but when I finally calculated and composed the data and used it to try programming the gear, I ended up reducing the grip and causing the computer to overload, intensify its heat pressure and liquefy!"

Kitt gasped painfully, her hands shooting up to her head. "I'm sorry I asked," Artha called back. He placed a comforting hand on Kitt's shoulder. "Kitt, you need to stay away from this situation for a while."

"How?" Kitt said.

"With me?" Artha asked with a slick smile and a hopeful glint in his eyes, only to step back as he saw Kitt's fist clench. "Alright, I'll drop it, I'll drop it!"

"Try meditating," Moordryd suggested, his eyes still glued to his screen. "Never works for me, but I'm pretty sure you have a much better chance trying it. Oh, _scales, _what the - ?!"

"Haha, I win!" Lance grinned as a huge Draconian _"GAME OVER"_ appeared on Moordryd's screen.

"You did not!" Moordryd retorted, starting the game up again. "I just, uh, let you have a head start! I can't play with you around!" He then dragged Artha away from Lance and into another place that Lance couldn't see them in, Beau following them in curiousity. "Okay, stable brat, I need you to do me a favor."

"Drac," Artha murmured. "Two things to feel good about myself for today." He quickly stepped back as he saw Moordryd's fist clench. "I'll drop it, I'll drop it, sheesh!"

Moordryd cleared his throat, and glared at him firmly. "Well, what is it?" Artha sighed.

"Teach me how to play!" Moordryd begged, stuffing the VIDDGame controller in Artha's hands.

Beau burst out laughing and nearly choked on the eleventh Draconee-Yum bar he was devouring. "Magna Draconis!" Artha laughed, wrapping his arm around his waist. "Moordryd, a dragon00b?"

"Forget it, I'll just learn on my own," Moordryd sighed, taking the buttons as Lance's Battleground dragon was about to attack his Battleground dragon. Decepshun was busy sniffing the Draconee-Yum bars on the ground with disdain.

"Doesn't your dragon like candy?" Artha asked, done laughing.

"No," Moordryd simply replied. "Though she might like it a lot better than I do."

"You...you don't like candy?" Artha said, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Okay, first you never played a VIDDGame in your whole entire life, then you don't like candy? You live a very deprived childhood."

"Oh, be quiet!" Moordryd snapped, losing once again. "I eat them occasionally, unlike you two pigs. I'm surprised your brother and your dragon don't have one cavity!"

"We Penns are born with beautiful teeth," Artha responded jokingly, striking a proud pose with Beau.

As time progressed on, Artha and Beau were left to ponder about the issue of Parm and Cain and the current situation with them. Beau turned to Artha, grunting as if to ask something. "Just thinking about this whole issue," Artha told him, patting the red and blue dragon on his head. "It's getting out of hand and it's making Kitt go nuts."

Beau chuckled as though this was no surprise. "Hey, give her a break, boy. Speaking of which, I'm gonna go check on her and see if her sanity is still intact," Artha joked with a small smile, standing up and walking towards the stable where Kitt was. "Hey, Parm, how's your yellow-bellied newt watch?"

No answer. "Parm?" Artha called again, blinking. He turned to where Parm would be. The man wasn't there. "Hey, Parm?"

"Haha, I win!" Moordryd cackled, cracking a victorious grin.

"Yeah, one to twenty-three," Lance drawled with a roll of his eyes, clearly bored. "You're such a dragon00b, Moordryd."

"Oh, shut up, mini brat."

"Guys, have you seen Parm?" Artha asked, walking over to the duo.

"He's right there!" Lance said, pointing to where Parm had stood. His finger slightly retraced. "Uh, well, now he's not! Hey, where'd he go, Artha?"

"I'm not sure, Lance," Artha replied. "Parm?"

"Parm?" Lance called, shutting off the Battleground Dragon and searching around. "Hey, Parmesan?"

"Wonder where the brainy brat went off to," Moordryd mused, and went over to where Kitt sat in a cross-legged position.

"Must, maintain, sanity..." she chanted, her eyes squeezed shut. "Must, maintain, sanity..."

"Hey, lady brat," Moordryd started, tapping her shoulder. "Did you see your little friend – "

"Will you _shut up?"_ Kitt cried, snagging Moordryd's shirt and dragging him so that Moordryd's was staring right into the girl's crazed eyes. "Can't you see that I'm clearly trying to _maintain my sanity?"_

He wondered if all women were like this when they were angry. "Er, how's that working for you?" Moordryd asked, giving a nervous chuckle.

Kitt scowled and threw Moordryd to the ground before standing up and walking away. "Not very good, I can tell," he responded painfully as he glared at her.

"Parm?" Kitt called. "Parm? Scales, where'd he go?"

"Parm!" Lance cried, running off and ramming into Cain. Both fell down with an "OOMF!".

"Ow!" Cain whimpered, rubbing his sore behind.

"Cain, have you seen Parm?" Kitt asked.

"Yes, I did, and I don't think it was good," Cain explained. "See, he took Coershun and ran off! I tried following him, but he used a flash stick!"

"Didn't Coershun try magging him off?" Lance said, stepping forward.

"No, I did see Coershun look confused at first, but then he just seemed to go along with Parm," Cain continued.

"Maybe it's because Parm seemed more like Cain," Lance mused.

"I'm pretty sure dragons are smart enough to recognize their riders," Artha reminded him.

"Yeah, but since Cain's a completely different person now, Parm and Coershun have more chances of working in sync," Lance added. He shrugged. "I guess."

"He's right," Cain said. "Even though both have different draconium influences and bone colors, they can still team up since the dragon is already familiar with the type of person he's working with! Well, that's my prediction."

"We have to go after him!" Artha said. He turned to Moordryd. "Moordryd, what is Cain most likely to do at a time like this?"

"Most likely a scheduled, planned out dragon theft," Moordryd told him. "If I have a lot on my hands or there's nothing else to really do, Cain and the other Dragon Eyes sometimes go out to steal dragons, or something else."

"Oh, no!" Kitt groaned. "Tell me it's more likely that he's doing something else!"

Moordryd shook his head. "Oh, well, I need the dragons anyway, and your friend will probably be just as good as the others at this point," the Dragon Eye leader smirked, getting onto Decepshun and placing his helmet on. "Maybe I'll even get him to join my crew if he doesn't want to hang around you. See you later, stable brats!"

With an evil laugh he and Decepshun ran off. "Artha, we can't hurt Parm!" Lance cried.

"Mini-Mortis is right, Artha," Kitt said, placing a hand on her hip. "He's our friend!"

"I know, guys, but we still need to go after him," Artha said, reaching inside his jacket. "And Cain's coming along with us."

"What?" the trio gasped. Beau grunted in question.

"But why?" Cain started, rather nervously.

"You're the brains now, Professor," Artha told him. "We need you until your memory is refreshed."

"But what dragon will I ride?" Cain questioned.

"You'll ride Cyrano," Artha told him. "You said earlier how it could work, so it should work even now."

"I guess..." murmured the man. He looked back up again. "But how are you going to stop him? You're just a stable boy!"

"Well, I have my ways," Artha said. He got on Beau and pulled out the Star Amulet that dangled from his neck. "Now!" Artha cried, taking of the star and raising it into the air. _"RELEASE THE – "_

"What are you doing?" Moordryd asked, suddenly back.

"Argh! W - who, me?" Artha squeaked, his eyes shifting to Moordryd. "Uh, well, I, uh...was admiring my dad's pendant! Yeah, really shiny, isn't it?"

Kitt groaned and placed her head in her hand. Cain blinked with confusion. "It's shiny, but why did you scream 'Release the'? Release the what, Penn?" Moordryd demanded.

"Uh, er..." Artha stammered. "Uh, the light! Release the light! See how it seems to glow?"

"That's the sun's light reflecting off it," Moordryd explained as he arched the right side of his brow. "I'm pretty sure you knew that."

"Yeah, I did!" Artha said, and grinned widely.

Moordryd just stared at him oddly before turning away. "Whatever, stable brat," he muttered.

"Why are you here anyway?" Lance asked.

"I dropped a drakkal," Moordryd said, picking it up from the ground. "I'm gonna need all of these for - "

"I think we have more important issues right now!" Kitt snapped. "Like stopping Parm and Moordryd?"

"Oh yeah!" Artha said, before realizing that Moordryd wasn't on their side and had already took off. "Oh, _scales!"_

"No time for pulling your Dragon Booster thing, stable boy," Kitt whispered, before jumping on Wyldfyr and placing her helmet on. "Let's go!"

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	4. Working Together

**Going Nuts **

**A/N: **A thanks to _Blue-Inked Frost_ for her feedback and to _Kereea_ for reviewing actively. And I'm sorry if Lance sounds a bit sexist; that's the way little boys are. :(

**Disclaimer: **You know the drill. I don't own Dragon Booster.

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

**Working Together**

"Kitt?"

"Yeah?"

"You think we should've asked Mortis about handling this situation?" Artha murmured, looking around the barren alley they were in. "I mean, he's got great advice and he knows what to do!"

"Hey, what about me?" Lance quipped. "I'm Mini-Mortis, remember?"

"I don't really want to hear your 'advice' or your next 'plan' on what we're gonna do," Kitt told him wryly.

"Aww," Lance scowled, folding his arms as he pouted.

Meanwhile Cain was busy with Parm's pair of binocs. "Okay, I'm calibrating the proximity of the heat scanners, and I think they're over there!" he announced, pointing behind a building. "There's nobody in the building right now and I can make out the shapes of dragons as well!"

"That's great!" Artha said, starting to get used to the whole personality switching thing. "Let's go get Parm!"

"Before they get away with their dragons," Kitt added.

As they turned the corner behind the building, Moordryd and two other Dragon Eyes were there, along with Parm, who looked like he was enjoying this. Artha and Kitt exchanged glances. It was kind of weird seeing Parm with the other side, not to mention one of many nightmares untold.

"Well, look who's here," Moordryd smirked, who had just finished shooting a green net at the last dragon, who had tried to attack Decepshun and Coershun. He saluted them with two fingers off his forehead. "Hello, stable brats. Back for your friend? Don't bother, he's with us now."

"Oh no," Lance whispered, his eyes widening in horror.

"Rancydd, Swayy, get them!" Moordryd ordered. A man wearing black and red and a girl with green hair extended their mag-staffs and charged at Artha, Kitt, Lance and Cain. Artha quickly extended his own mag-staff as Beau magged him forward at the two Dragon Eyes, knocking them down.

Rancydd and Swayy got up immediately, and Rancydd swung his mag-staff forward. Artha sidestepped out of the way and bent backwards as the man swung it at him again.

"Artha!" Lance cried. Artha looked up to see Swayy advancing on Lance, but not before she was knocked down by a tail lash from Wyldfyr and Kitt.

"Step away from him!" Kitt growled, grabbing her mag-staff and jumping off Wyldfyr, who growled at the Dragon Eye dragons preparing to attack. The street racer dodged a blow from Swayy, before Swayy noticed Cain. Using this opportunity, Kitt grabbed the taken-aback greenette and pinned her to the ground before going after Rancydd.

"Cain?" Swayy asked, getting up as she stared at him in shock. "What are you doing? On their side, no less?"

Cain blinked. "Um, well, miss, long story..." he started, but was interrupted with his own scream as a whip lashed forward. He turned to see Parm with an energy drain whip, cackling.

"You're up next, nerd," Parm grinned, preparing to lash out his whip again. Lance's eyes widened again and Cain whimpered. Cyrano looked up and growled at Parm, who turned to the Bull-class dragon. For a second Parm froze, blinking, then shook his head and was about to attack before Beau knocked him down.

Kitt ran over to Lance, Cain, and their dragons. She was about to attack the figure getting up when she realized it was Parm. She hesistated; she didn't want to attack her friend, be it as annoying as he is and as amnesia-ridden as he was now.

Artha realized this as well, and pushed Rancydd aside. "Parm!" he cried.

The man looked up. "What do you want?" Parm snapped, gritting his teeth and glaring back at Artha.

"Parm, this isn't you!" Artha exclaimed. "You're not on Moordryd's side! You're on our side, Parm. We're your friends! Try and remember!"

For a moment Parm just stared back at Artha, then Kitt and Lance, then Beau, Wyldfyr, and Fracshun, then finally at Cyrano. His eyes became hazy, and for a moment, it looked like there would be hope.

That is, until Parm replied, "Yeah, who are you kidding?"

Artha's mouth fell open. "B-b-but it always works!" he objected, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Not this time, stable boy," Kitt muttered, spinning her mag-staff. Beau snorted and flexed his claws as Wyldfyr cracked his neck determinedly.

Lance noticed Cain and Coershun staring at each other, as though Cain was remembering who his dragon was, before Lance tapped his shoulder. "Uh, Cain?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"H-huh?" Cain murmured. "Well, it's quite odd. I think I recognize Coershun..."

"Of course you do. He _is_ your dragon."

"Oh, right!" Cain said, looking sheepish. He sighed. "This is a bit strange..."

"No kidding!" Lance grinned, realizing that they might just be getting their memories back. "Hey, Cain, how long can amnesia last, specifically yours?"

"Two years, maybe less, maybe far, far more," was the answer. Lance's face fell. Cain scratched the back of his head. "Er, well, hopefully, my memories do come back soon enough!" he chuckled awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Beau and Artha were freeing the captured dragons by cutting nets, before Parm lashed his whip out at him. Without having to look the teenager grabbed it and yanked it, throwing it far away. "Parm, c'mon, can't you recognize us?" Artha said, Beau behind him.

Parm gritted his teeth, but he didn't respond as he stared at them almost dazedly. _Yes! _Artha thought victoriously as a smile crossed his face.

Suddenly another energy drain whip caught Artha's wrist. Artha yelped and felt himself weakening as his knees buckled, soon finding them on the ground. Beau growled, but the sound of a dragon tackle followed by Decepshun and Beau's hissing could be heard.

There was a sinister chuckle from the direction of where the whip came from. "Take him," Moordryd's voice ordered. Artha saw the Dragon Eyes advancing forward, towards him. Kitt cried out in protest, and prepared to pummel Moordryd, but she was quickly seized and held back by Swayy. Cain got off Cyrano and stepped forward before he was blocked off by Parm.

"Look, Parmon, please don't do this!" Cain begged, raising his hands. "This is not what you are supposed to do, it isn't your calling!"

Parm just scoffed at him. "What do you know about destiny, geekazoid?" he retorted hotly. "Besides, didn't you used to do this? Well, then, if we're each other now, then I suppose we'll just have to play the role."

Cain shrieked and stepped back, completely afraid of what the man was going to do to him, even with such a skinny stature.

Just then there was a tremendous boom, and the ground began shaking under their feet. "Wh-what's happening?" Moordryd gasped, his attention drawn away from Artha as he looked around frantically.

"It's an earthquake!" Lance cried as he gripped onto a frantically squeaking Fracshun's saddle. Beau quickly ran towards them and surrounded the two protectively as he looked around.

"No, not an earthquake!" Cain responded, immediately pulling out one of Parm's gadgets and typing commands in. "Far less powerful on this Ryktyrr scale!"

There was another loud, booming sound going off, before Parm shouted, "Disrupter mines from below!"

"Let's get outta here!" Rancydd yelled.

Both Rancydd and Swayy jumped on their dragons and sped off. "Come back here!" Moordryd called, but at that moment the supports on the street broke off. The first to fall were Cain and Parm.

"Parm, Cain!" Kitt screamed, running forward with the rest. Cyrano and Coershun shrieked and were about to jump after their riders before Decepshun's rappelling gear activated. Two cords with grips shot down and grabbed both of them, Parm by his arm and Cain by his foot.

Cain looked down and shrieked, looking ready to faint. It was a _long_ way down, and one of them had to have the bigger fear of heights. Parm gulped, hoping desperately he wouldn't fall. "Pull us up!" Parm yelled.

Suddenly, a net shot out from below the street, snagging both men and pulling them away. There was a bright flash, followed by the sound of rappelling gear being withdrawn. "Wh-what?" Artha stammered. "Where'd they go?" He reached for the amulet around his neck, but Kitt placed a hand on his shoulder, her face clearly saying, "no."

"Cain?" Moordryd called. "Cain!" He tried a comm-link connection, seeing the man's frantic face. "Cain, what – " Moordryd started, but just then the connection was briskly cut off and Moordryd was left staring at static. "Something's not right here..."

"I'll say!" Kitt retorted. "First the amnesia thing, then a dragon theft – "

"That was nearly successful, no thanks to you," Moordryd interrupted, scowling.

"Whatever, Paynn!" Kitt said. "To top things off, Parm and Cain just got kidnapped!"

"You behind this, Moordryd?" Artha asked, lowering his eyebrows.

"No way!" Moordryd said. "Why do you think I'd be behind this?"

Artha looked down under the track. "Lance, get your rappelling gear off Fracshun and give it to Cyrano," Artha told him. "I'm going to check it out."

"But I wanna see!" Lance argued, placing the gear on Cyrano. He grabbed the grip and jumped down.

"Lance!" Kitt started, reaching out, but he was slowly lowered down thanks to the grip that Cain had modified (successfully after five tries) earlier. The boy looked around carefully before he picked up something. Artha and Moordryd pulled on the cord as Lance came back up.

"So what did you find?" Kitt asked.

"I found this," Lance said, opening his palm and showing a small gadget resembling a flash stick. Moordryd took it and examined the object.

"A blinding device," Moordryd murmured, remembering when Stewardd used one against him and Cain in the middle of a dragon theft. "This is turquoise draconium, and it's got some kinda symbol on it."

"Let me see," Artha said, snatching the device from Moordryd and looking at where the symbol was. The symbol represented soundwaves, which were coloured turquoise.

"The Voice of the Dragon crew!" Kitt exclaimed.

"One thing I know is that Vociferous and most of his crewmembers can be careless," Moordryd said distastefully. "Though I don't know what they would want with Cain and Parm."

"Well, one thing's for sure. We have to go after them again!" Kitt said.

"Wait, we?" Artha questioned, raising an eyebrow. "As in, we and Moordryd?"

"I don't think so," Moordryd agreed, also raising the right side of his brow.

"You're probably in better terms with Vociferous and the Voice of the Dragon crew, Paynn," Kitt explained. "You know more about them than we do. Plus, Cain's your friend. So for now, you're part of 'we'."

"What?" Moordryd gasped in disbelief.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Artha scoffed.

"Look, are we getting Parm and Cain back, or not?" Kitt growled, clenching her fists.

Both shut up. "Good," Kitt said, turning around to hop back on Wyldfyr while Moordryd and Artha quickly exchanged glares.

"Uh, so does this mean we're gonna be following you?" Lance asked, who, like most little kids, was discriminating without realizing the sheer crime. Kitt shot a look at Lance when Moordryd and Decepshun started forward.

"I'll lead," he said, rolling his eyes.

"No, I'll lead," Artha shot back, he and Beau moving forward quickly. He turned his head around and smirked. "Right then, follow me!"

"Artha, do you know where you're going?" Lance asked.

There was a _BANG_ as Artha's head hit a sign. Beau rolled his eyes and chuckled while Moordryd tried hard not to burst out laughing. "I think that's his answer," Kitt told an unimpressed Lance. "So...how does following a girl sound right now?"

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	5. The Problem with Planning

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **Minor spoilers in this part for "Artha the Drac" (which are not plot important). Sorry if it's a tad bit longer than the other chapters, but then again, maybe that's a good thing. And Vociferous is drac even as much of a snob he can be. :)

**Disclaimer: **And so on and so on and so on.

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

**The Problem with Planning**

Moordryd, Artha, Lance and Kitt finally arrived where Vociferous was, along with his assistant, Spynn. "Well, well, well, look who's decided to visit," Vociferous said.

"Artha Penn, the stable boy," Spynn drawled, smiling slyly. "With his street racer girlfriend, Kitt Wonn, and Moordryd Paynn, leader the Dragon Eyes."

"AHEM..." Lance said.

"And the meddlesome child," Vociferous added with a frown. Lance rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Penn? More dragon food to eat?"

"Very funny," Artha muttered, remembering the time when Vociferous easily tricked Artha into, as Lance once said, "looking like a doofus", by eating Dragonola food bars. "As I remember, you ended up chewing on some too!"

"Who told you that?" Vociferous asked, one of his eyebrows raising.

"We were there too, remember?" Kitt reminded him, pointing at Lance and herself. "It wasn't just Dragon Booster who saw you choking down a Dragonola bar!"

"Wait, so the stable brat and the Voice of the Dragon leader were eating dragon food?" Moordryd asked, a smirk starting to show on his face.

Beau nodded with a grin, and even Decepshun cracked a smile. "And I don't need to be reminded," Artha growled at them. He turned back to Vociferous. "Speaking of 'we', we're missing one person in 'we'. Would you, by any chance, know where that person is?"

Vociferous scoffed. "If you came all the way here just to ask that, well, too bad, because the answer's no," he said.

Cyrano grunted and Coershun growled. "He was kidnapped!" Lance said, adding on to what they wanted.

"We wouldn't care. And if you think _we_ kidnapped your friend, then you're wrong. The Voice of the Dragon aren't associated with kidnappings," Spynn explained. Artha cast a glance at Moordryd, who simply rolled his eyes.

"See? So, why would you think that my crew would kidnap your friends?" Vociferous questioned.

"Because everybody knows that you're an excellent liar," Moordryd smirked.

"What?" Vociferous said, his coolness replaced with a faux offended pout. Artha quickly extended his mag-staff and twirled it, looking ready to strike down Vociferous into the pavement.

"Alright, I'm not playing around anymore. Where is he?" he demanded. "Wait, no, not just 'he'. Where are _they?"_

Vociferous was about to call for reinforcements when Kitt grabbed Spynn and pulled out her own mag-staff. "Try anything sneaky and you'll get your scales scraped," she threatened.

"And to top it off, we'll use this!" Lance said, pulling out the blinding device and throwing it.

Moordryd let out a loud groan. "It doesn't work like a flash stick, stable brat!" he cried.

Vociferous quickly picked up the blinding device while Spynn freed herself of Kitt's grip and prepared some green trapping gear. "That's all, folks!" Vociferous said, grinning as he aimed the blinding device at Moordryd, Lance, Kitt and Artha. It went off and lights flashed in their eyes. Spynn quickly shot nets at them before she and Vociferous ran off.

Unfortunately for them Beau quickly recovered and whipped his tail under their feet, causing them to fall to the ground. "Good job, boy!" Artha said, freeing one of his hands and pulling the net away. He grabbed Vociferous and gave a fierce stare. "Now, for the last time, where's Parm and Cain?"

Vociferous didn't answer. "I said, where's Parm and Cain?" Artha demanded, his voice rising.

"They're not here!" Vociferous finally retorted. He looked at Moordryd. "Your old man wanted me to snag one of the Penn Racing crewmembers for information on the Dragon Booster. He offered me a very drac amount of drakkals."

Moordryd frowned, irritated at the fact that his father hired the man who failed him before to do Moordryd's job again. "So, did you learn anything?" Moordryd said, folding his arms as he glared down at him.

"Yeah, and that's not to trust your daddy with promises," Vociferous responded bitterly.

"Sound familiar?" Kitt jeered, who had just freed herself of a net and was now working on freeing Lance and Fracshun. "So where are they now?"

"At his citadel," Vociferous answered. "Now will you just get outta here?"

- - -

Parm groaned and sat up, opening his eyes. He gasped and blinked twice, looking around at the monitors and other devices, and the cage he was being held in. "Wh-what the – " he stammered, bolting upwards and running to the door of the cage, shaking it. "Hey, what's going on? Let me out of here!"

A cold voice chuckled darkly. "So, you've finally come to," the voice said, and Word stepped out from his hiding place in the shadows. "Now that you're awake, I need information from you."

Parm blinked. "What?" he replied.

"Don't toy around with me," Word drawled. He paced the control room, hands clasped behind his back. "You are Parmon Sean, friends with Connor Penn's children, and a friend of the Dragon Booster."

"The...Dragon Booster?" was all Parm could say. "Me?"

"Yes, you. If you think I'm stupid, think again. I know that you know the Dragon Booster, and that the Dragon Booster knows you. Don't you know that?"

"...okay, I'm just really confused right now. What are you saying?"

Word's eyes narrowed as he turned to the cage. "You know what I'm talking about," Word said. "Unless, of course, you want to be turned into one of my wraiths. Controlled and helpless, bent at my will, with the only thing in your mind is to do whatever I want you to do..."

Parm gulped. "Er, m- maybe some other time, sir," he said. "I just remembered, I was, uh...going on a dragon theft. Can you, well, get me out of here? Right now?"

The mentioning of a dragon theft struck Word, before he simply shook his head and approached the cage. "Enough games," Word growled. "The Dragon Booster...you must know his true identity. Now, tell me who he really is, or else."

"Bu-bu-but I don't know!" Parm stuttered. "Honestly, I don't!"

"Tell me who the Dragon Booster is!" Word snapped. Parm yelped and backed away quickly.

There was a groan as a second figure sat up. "Well, you're up, but I wonder what use you'll be right now," Word said, turning his head towards a conscious Cain.

"Oh, my head..." Cain mumbled. "Wait, I'm starting to remember...blinding gear triggering off, causing cerebral confusion, therefore leading to the other parts of my bodily system not responding, triggering weakness, and then..." He stopped when he saw Word and Parm in a cage. "Oh, dear!" Cain said, trying to crawl away.

"Well, perhaps since you aren't helping Moordryd, you can do me a favor and watch over the stable boy's friend; make sure he doesn't cause any trouble," Word told him. He looked back at Parm sinisterly, and Parm nearly soiled his trousers. "Remember, if you won't give me what I want to know about the Dragon Booster, there's always Plan B, and that's interfering with a rescue."

He laughed and walked away. Cain and Parm just stared at his disappearing figure, extremely terrified, before Parm went back to shaking the bars.

"Let me outta here!" Parm cried. "Cain! Cain!"

"Huh?" Cain said, turning to the cage. He blinked. "Me?"

"Yes, you!" Parm hissed. "Can you get me out of this cage?"

"Get you out of that cage?" Cain scoffed. "If you ask me, you deserve to be in a cage! I don't even know where I am!"

"Hey, neither do I!" Parm retorted. "Now will you just hurry up?"

"Not a chance!" Cain said, turning his head away. "It's not my fault that you're in that cage! You've been nothing but brute, rude and absolutely foolish and boisterous! It's people like you that need a lesson in etiquette and proper manners, like that Moordryd fellow!" He paused. "On second thought, why on earth did that man look very similar to Moordryd..."

"Well, you're not gonna get outta here either if you don't do anything about it!" Parm pointed out. "I...I know the way out of this guy's citadel!" That was a lie and directly contradicted his earlier statement, but it was all Parm had.

Cain shuddered. Already he didn't like the eeriness and echoing silence of the large control room, and he surely didn't want to be in this building anymore. "Alright, fine," Cain said, standing up and going over to the cage. He studied the lock before pressing a few buttons.

There was a loud buzzing sound before two nets were shot at Cain's direction. He shrieked and ducked before the two green nets could trap him. "Well, er, that's not gonna work," Cain said, still shaking. He looked around before standing back up and staring at the lock, pulling out a few of Parm's gadgets. "Okay, now, since I don't have any light green deactivation gear, I'll just have to find out how to unlock this."

Parm watched Cain blankly. "Well?" he asked.

"Hang on a minute," Cain said, raising a hand. "Now, this cage has a flaw of one in approximately 3,208. With these gadgets I'm not sure if I can penetrate it, but the lock has only one combination code, with the code containing six numerical and alphabetical characters. Now, if there are twenty-six letters, plus ten numbers, only a few to be used to deactivate the lock, that means..."

"That we're doomed!" Parm moaned, banging his head lightly on the bars.

"No, not exactly," Cain said, typing a few calculations in his gadgets. "So then..."

- - -

"You're crazy!"

"Hey, I was crazy this afternoon, so if I'm crazy now, don't be surprised," Kitt chirped dryly.

The dragons and their riders (minus Cyrano and Coershun) had arrived at Word's citadel. The plan was for Moordryd to come up with a distraction, whereas Artha, Kitt, and Lance would break in and free Parm. However, Moordryd didn't like the plan so much, as he needed to provide a location for them to break in.

"You actually think I'm giving you directions on how to bust into my father's citadel?" Moordryd gasped. "Forget it, stable brats! I'll just go in there and – "

"Hey, you can't be trusted alone!" Artha pointed out. "What if you don't get Parm out of there? This is why we need a good plan!"

"You call this a good plan?" Moordryd retorted.

"I don't," Lance said.

"See?" Moordryd smirked. "Even mini brat agrees with me!"

"That's because the plan isn't my plan," Lance added.

"Yeah, it's either his plan or our plan," Kitt said with a smile.

Moordryd muttered something under his breath. "My father's citadel is highly guarded, unlike the last time you broke in," he explained. "Even if you try, you'd be caught and destroyed. And it won't be my fault."

"Oh, yes, it will be," Artha said. "What about the Dragon Booster?"

"Oh, no, the Dragon Booster!" Moordryd mocked. "I completely forgot about the Dragon Booster! I'm soooooo scared!"

Fracshun grunted and snickered. Beau, Wyldfyr, and Cyrano turned at him with surprised grunts and growls of warning. Decepshun and Coershun exchanged wide-eyed glances before shaking their heads in denial.

"What did he say?" Moordryd demanded.

"Hello? I don't speak dragon," Artha responded, though he got the feeling that Fracshun probably said something about being scared, because the Dragon Booster was right in front of Moordryd. "Lance, tell Fracshun to keep his mouth shut next time?"

"Okay!" Lance said, patting Fracshun's head as the young dragon hung his head in embarrassment. "So are we going inside, or what?"

"We would be inside, if it wasn't for Mr. Difficult here!" Kitt said, glaring at Moordryd. "Look, I don't care how heavily guarded your father's citadel is! There has to be a place we can sneak in!"

"Tough luck, I'm not letting you!" Moordryd said.

"You do realize you owe us a lot?" Kitt said. "How many times has the Dragon Booster saved your butt? We're friends with the Dragon Booster, and that's why Word has Parm. But you owe us anyway!"

Moordryd laughed, but Decepshun grunted in agreement, to Beau's surprise. "What, now you're siding with them?" Moordryd asked her irritably.

"Look, Moordryd," Artha said, stepping forward. "Cain's in there too. If we don't get them out of there soon, Word is eventually gonna realize that Parm and Cain are not who they were, and from what I know about your father – "

"But you hardly do," Moordryd interrupted.

Artha cursed himself mentally, remembering that he knew Word more as the Dragon Booster, not as Artha Penn. "Whatever. Anyway, from what I know about your father, he's gonna use our situation as an advantage! This is why we need to get them out of there! Now are you in, or are you out?"

Moordryd considered this. After some time of heavy thinking he blurted out, "But the citadel is heavily guarded!"

Kitt groaned in frustration. "You told us that a million times, Paynn!" she cried. "If there are any wraith dragons set up, we'll get past them."

"Uh, guys..." Lance started.

"Not now, Lance," Kitt said. "And if there are guards, we'll knock them down!"

"Guys..." Lance said again, his voice rising.

"Lance, hang on, Kitt's talking!" Artha told him.

"And we can dodge traps and whatever your father has planned for us!" Kitt continued.

"What about wraith dragons and security cameras?" Moordryd asked. "They're set up everywhere."

"I already covered the wraith dragon issue. As for security cameras, we'll just get past them."

"Moordryd, c'mon, we need to get Parm, and then we'll just get out, we promise!" Artha said. "Think of it as getting back for hiring Vociferous again and not you!"

Moordryd gave an icy glare at Artha, but finally groaned and said, "Do whatever you want."

"Uh, Moordryd?" said Lance.

"What?" Moordryd snapped, very irritated now.

"Will your father scale you if he realized that you're helping us?" the ten-year-old asked.

"What do you think, stable brat?" Moordryd retorted.

"I think we already messed up," Lance said, pointing at a security camera just behind Moordryd, Kitt and Artha.

Moordryd cursed, Artha groaned and Kitt placed her head in her hands. "Please tell me this is all just a really bad dream..." she hissed.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	6. Can It Get Any Worse?

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **This probably isn't the best chapter, or the longest (probably the most ironic, though). Sorry about that; I'm stuck with writer's block and my brain full of ideas.

**Disclaimer: **It's in the last four parts. Check there.

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

**Can It Get Any Worse?**

"Okay, so we've tried at least sixty-four combinations already, with no results of the lock being unlocked. We'll just have to keep trying."

"How can you possibly keep count?" Parm moaned, ready to collapse with boredom.

"What do you mean?" Cain asked, typing more calculations into Parm's calculator. "Anybody can keep count, and it's only been seventeen minutes and twenty-eight point nine seconds rounded."

"Really? It seemed more like ages to me, considering you going on in your endless technobabble," Parm muttered. "Do me a favor, and speak English?"

"Well, you're not helping a bit!" Cain retorted. "If you were helping out, we'd be out of here a lot earlier!"

"So tell me how I'm supposed to help when I'm in a cage?" Parm drawled.

"Oh, how about this lovely suggestion? I wish you'd be less sarcastic!" Cain snapped, furrowing his eyebrows at him.

"And I wish you'd talk English," Parm responded blankly with a roll of his eyes.

The doors suddenly slid apart with a hiss, and Word Paynn walked in. Cain shrieked and quickly hid Parm's gadgets as he quickly backed away from the cage, clearing his throat and glaring at Parm fiercely as he could. Parm looked at Word nervously.

"I trust you've been watching our victim well, Cain?" Word asked. Parm gulped and shuddered while Cain nodded rather hastily, not wanting to say anything. "Good," Word said, and turned back to his monitors.

He pressed a few buttons. Different locations popped up in his screen, mainly the citadel's base. His eyes widened as one of them showed Moordryd yelling at Artha Penn and Kitt Wonn, who was yelling something back.

"C'mon, brainy brat, while he's not looking!" Parm hissed, poking Cain.

"Are you nuts?" Cain hissed back.

"Who really cares right now? Hurry up, before I'm doomed!"

Cain whipped out the calculator and typed calculations in furiously. Word ignored this and pressed a button on his control panel. Moordryd's face showed up on one of his large monitors, who was still glaring at Kitt.

"What do you mean it's my fault?" he was saying. "Do you think I know _every_ location where a security camera is?" Moordryd suddenly saw his comm screen open up, and he quickly cleared his throat, turning to his father's face. "Er, yes, father?"

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Word demanded.

Moordryd's eyes shifted around hastily. "I, uh..." he stammered, then grabbed Artha, Kitt and Lance, who cried out in protest. "Father, I have Artha and Lance Penn in custody, with Kitt Wonn as well," he said firmly.

"Oh, smooth. Real smooth," Kitt whispered to Moordryd. She yelped as Moordryd tightened his grip on her and gave a smug smile to the comm-screen.

"I thought they might be of some use to you," he finished proudly.

"Moordryd?"

"Yes, father?"

"Do you really think I'm stupid?" Word said.

Moordryd's face fell. Seeing an opportunity, Artha quickly wriggled his hand free, grabbing Moordryd and pushing him down to the ground. He helped Kitt and Lance up. "Let's go!" Artha cried, jumping on Beau, who gave a grunt and took off, followed by Wyldfyr, Cyrano and Fracshun.

Moordryd groaned and muttered darkly under his breath as he sat up, rubbing his arm. "Do something, Moordryd!" Word growled, and shut off the connection.

"What was that all about?" Kitt asked Artha as they raced off.

"If Moordryd won't help us get Parm back, then we just need to find another way to do that," Artha replied, adjusting his helmet. "We need to get off the ground and somewhere on the citadel."

"And watch out for the security cameras!" Lance grinned.

"That too," Artha said, giving an eye roll. "Beau, mag-jump!"

Beau growled and pulsed with gold mag-energy. He braked and blasted himself into the air, landing onto a large pipe. Fracshun and Wyldfyr did the same. Cyrano however paced the ground, looking up. Being a heavy dragon meant very difficult mag-jumping.

Beau called something down to Cyrano, and the green dragon nodded, running off towards the citadel again. "Beau, what did you tell him to do?" Artha demanded. Beau simply grunted something and nodded towards Cyrano. Everybody looked to see Cyrano ram into the citadel doors. Decepshun and Coershun reared back in surprise, while Moordryd reached for a drain whip, but Cyrano continued to bash against the doors.

"Cyrano's distracting Moordryd!" Lance said.

"That gives us more time to get into Paynn Incorporated," Kitt said, grinning as she and Wyldfyr took off towards the back of the citadel. "Come on!"

Artha and Lance followed.

- - -

Alarms began triggering off in Word's control room. Word typed in a few commands and saw a large Bull-class dragon trying to get in by bashing into the doors. His eyes narrowed in fury. Those doors would not hold much longer if that dragon kept it up.

"Moordryd, where are you?" Word asked, pressing a small button on his earpiece.

"In front of the citadel, trying to fend off a Bull-class dragon!" Moordryd's voice replied, and Word could see the tip of an energy drain whip lash out on his monitors, barely missing the dragon, who roared back.

"Be quick, Moordryd," Word snarled. "You will be to blame if that dragon breaks down my doors and gets into my citadel." He cut off the connection and heard a few beeps and bloops. Cain managed to yank a cable off the lock as Word spun around sharply, staring suspiciously at him, before shaking his head and pressing a few buttons on his control panel, taking a wraith control stick as well.

"Keep an eye on Parmon Sean," Word told Cain. "And if the Dragon Booster comes, call me immediately. He will be eliminated." And with that, he left the control room.

Both Parm and Cain exhaled, thankful that Word was gone. "Okay, let's get back to freeing me before he gets back in here, shall we?" Parm said.

Cain gave a shriek as he stared as the calculator. "Oh, dear!" he said.

"'Oh, dear'?" Parm repeated, his voice rising. "'Oh, dear'? What do you mean by 'Oh, dear'?"

"When I disconnected the fet-lock cable while my calculations and streaming coding to process the decoding activation that were currently in progress, I lost all my previous data!" Cain pouted. He had found an easier way to try and unlock the cage instead of pressing the lock buttons themselves, and getting snared by nets or other traps.

"You WHAT?" Parm cried.

"Does anybody _ever _understand a word I say?" Cain sighed.

"Oh, yeah, I understood you completely," Parm said with a nod of his head. "You said that you lost the calculations to get me out of this cage, so that means THAT WE'RE STUCK HERE, THANKS TO YOU!"

"Er, sorry," Cain said sheepishly, looking away awkwardly.

"Sorry? _Sorry?"_ Parm yelled, balling his fists and glaring daggers at the other man. "No, don't say _sorry!_ _Sorry_ doesn't mean anything right now! When I get out of this cage, _you're _gonna be sorry, not to mention DEAD!"

Cain started to back away, but just then there was a loud _CLANG _from behind him. Both men jumped in the air, turning towards the direction.

"Wh-what was that?" Parm stuttered.

"I...I don't know!" Cain squeaked, his legs shaking and his teeth chattering. His eyes darted everywhere. A small movement caught his eye, and he whirled around to see who it was.

There wasn't anybody standing around.

"I hope my eyes aren't deceiving me," Cain said. "As for the rest, er, I think we're pretty safe.

Parm gave a sigh of relief. "Close call," Parm murmured, rolling his eyes.

There was a deafening roar from behind them.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	7. It's Hero Time!

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **Right, less of the humor and more of the action in this chapter.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Dragon Booster, please don't sue me, it belongs to its rightful owners, and so on.

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

**It's Hero Time!**

The roar from the control room managed to echo outside of Paynn Incorporated. Fracshun squeaked and backed away immediately from the direction of the citadel while Wyldfyr winced, shaking his head. "Oh, no!" Lance cried. "Something must be after Parm and Cain!"

"But what?" Kitt asked, eyes widening at the tremendousness of the roar.

"We need to get in there and find out, before it's too late!" Artha said.

"Not so fast, stable brat!"

Artha turned around, only to have the clamp of Moordryd's energy drain whip grab his arm. Artha groaned and fell off Beau. Beau gave an immediate concerned grunt, then quickly snapped the whip's connection off. His rider gasped painfully as the draining effect stopped.

Moordryd gave a disappointed scoff, and smirked at them. "It's rated at level eight," he explained to them smugly, jumping off Decepshun's saddle. "Can drain any dragon or human's energy in less than ten seconds. Twenty if they're stronger than they look."

"Well, you're looking at somebody who can last up to your stupid whip!" Artha snapped back.

"Right, are you all done bragging yet?" Kitt said. "Paynn, get us in there _now!"_

"And why should I?" Moordryd retorted. "What are you gonna do if I don't help you?"

"You're just so full of it, Moordryd," Artha muttered under his breath.

"What was that, Penn?" Moordryd snapped, whipping his head at his rival.

"I said that you're a Daddy's Boy," Artha simply replied.

"Why, you – " Moordryd growled, grabbing Artha's jacket.

Both suddenly yelped and jumped back as a sheet of flame shot out. Kitt pressed a button, and the flames from her reversed thrusting gear stopped. "Unless you _both_ want to be burned so badly that you're practically ashes once I'm done with you both, _that's _what's gonna happen!" Kitt snarled. "Now you are gonna get us inside Paynn Incorporated, and you are gonna stop insulting Moordryd."

"But he – " Artha tried saying, but Kitt glared at him.

"Now, both of you are gonna stop acting like little kids, or by the Magna Draconis _I will scale you both! Is that understood?"_

Both nodded their heads dumbly. "Good," Kitt said with a small smile. Beau chuckled.

There was another roar heard from inside the building. Fracshun squeaked again and hid behind Wyldfyr. Lance was busy listening through a small vent. "That doesn't sound good!" Lance said with worried eyes. "Artha! We need to do something!"

Kitt turned to Moordryd, whose eyes had widened. "Alright, Moordryd, now you can help us," she said. "What was that? A wraith dragon?"

"Well, er, kind of," Moordryd replied hesitantly, twiddling his fingers uneasily.

"Kind of?" Kitt repeated, then narrowed her eyes to look at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Is it even a wraith dragon?" Artha added, staring at the citadel curiously.

"Technically, yes," Moordryd said, nodding slowly.

"Then why do you seem so nervous?"

Moordryd shot Artha a certain look. "Ever seen a dragon at age forty?" he asked.

- - -

"That doesn't sound good," Cain said, shifting his eyes around nervously.

Parm looked ready to faint. "Well, good news," he hissed shakily. "What's behind you doesn't look good either!"

Cain slowly turned his head and screamed as a particularly _large_ wraith dragon looked down at Cain and Parm venomously. The dragon had wraith gear on, and was a dangerous looking bipedal Psi-class dragon.

"Wr – wr – wr – wraith dragon!" Cain screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the huge wraith. He shrieked and pulled his finger back as the dragon snapped its teeth forward, snarling. Parm's teeth chattered nervously.

"Get me outta here right noooow!" Parm cried, shaking the bars.

The wraith dragon charged at Cain, who screamed and jumped out of the way, causing the dragon to bash into the cage. The lock broke down and the door opened slowly, leaving Parm standing there stiffly, staring open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the wraith dragon shaking its head.

Cain ran up to Parm and waved a hand frantically in front of his face. "Uh, yoohoo?" Cain said hastily. "You can get us out of here, like, right now!"

"Wraith dragon…" Parm stuttered, lifting a quavering finger. "Almost ate me…big, big dragon…"

Cain slapped the stricken man across the face. "Okay, time to get us out of here now!" he snapped.

"Ow! Uh…uh…" Parm said, looking around hastily.

"Oh, great!" Cain groaned. "So you don't know the way out of here?"

"Yes, I do, but it's being blocked by a big dragon!" Parm retorted.

"So how do we get out now?" Cain cried, clutching his arm tightly. "We're trapped!"

"How should I know? You're the brains!" Parm snapped back, grabbing his.

The dragon roared again, causing Parm and Cain to jump in the air. "Alright, alright!" Parm said. He placed his fingers on the temples of his head and massaged them quickly. "Uh, uh…oh, look, it's the dragon of legend and the Dragon Booster!"

The dragon looked up and turned to the direction that Parm pointed in. "I can't believe that actually worked," Parm marveled with a snicker.

"Gloat about it outside!" Cain said, grabbing his arm. "Run!"

Both of them ran underneath the dragon's legs. The wraith turned its head at them and snarled, chasing after them until Parm and Cain disappeared through the door, only to find Word waiting there with three wraith dragons cornering Cyrano.

Word frowned. "Didn't I trust you to look after our prisoner?" he said.

"Uh, well…you see – " Cain started, but was interrupted as Word approached him.

"Why did you let him escape?" Word wanted to know, towering over the two. "Why?"

The large wraith dragon bashed right through Word's doors, coming outside and giving a triumphant roar.

"Er, is that a good enough reason?" Cain said as Word looked at the wraith.

"How can something that big get out?" Parm wondered.

Cyrano quickly magged Parm onto his back; Coershun, who was also there, magged Cain onto his, and the two took off. Word growled and turned towards the large wraith. "Get them back, my wraith dragon!" Word ordered. "And destroy the Dragon Booster if he comes!"

The dragon roared and took off in the direction where Parm and Cain had run off too. Meanwhile Lance and Fracshun noticed the huge dragon, and their eyes boggled.

"Now that is a really big wraith dragon!" Lance stuttered, staggering backwards and bumping into Moordryd's leg. The white-haired man looked down at it.

"Take my advice," he said, getting back onto Decepshun. "Don't go after it."

"Are you serious?" Kitt gasped. "He's after our friend and your friend!"

"We have to go after them!" Artha told Moordryd. "What is it about a wraith dragon that makes you give up?"

"Do you think I have a choice? The type of wraith gear on that dragon was programmed not to be controlled by a stick, but to obey only my father and destroy anybody else!" Moordryd explained as he glared back at him.

"What about you?" Lance asked.

Moordryd shook his head. "Forget it," he said. "It'll still destroy me."

"But you look like your father! After all, you are Daddy's Boy!" Lance taunted.

Moordryd shot the redhead a very dark look. "I don't look like my father, so quit calling me that," he snapped. Lance looked away nervously for awhile, then looked back at Moordryd spitefully.

"Looked in a mirror lately, Moordryd?" Kitt said, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "Because you'll see your father staring back at you!"

"Hey, I have similar traits, but I don't look like my father!" Moordryd retorted, not wanting to see if the phrase was metaphorical.

"Yeah," Lance said under his breath. "And you're not as bad as him either."

Moordryd heard this, though he didn't say anything. "Last chance, Paynn," Artha said. "Are you gonna help us, or not?"

Moordryd stared at Artha for a moment, then scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Do what you want," he muttered, and Decepshun jumped off the pipe.

"Oooh, can you believe the nerve of that guy?" Kitt snarled.

"We have bigger problems, Kitt!" Artha told her, gesturing at where Parm and Cain ran off. "Like saving Parm?"

Beau, Wyldfyr and Fracshun jumped off the pipe and took off after the large wraith. "I hope Parm's okay!" Lance said.

"He'll be fine," Kitt responded. She reconsidered this thought. "Then again, maybe not."

Lance looked up at his brother. "Hey, Artha, I don't think you can take that dragon as yourself!"

Fracshun grinned and Wyldfyr nodded in approval. Kitt gave a smirk. "So it's hero time, isn't it?" she said.

Beau grunted determinedly. Artha grinned, and pulled out the amulet from around his neck. _"Release the dragon!"_ he cried, slamming it down on his armband. It flashed brightly and enveloped Artha and Beau in a bright light.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	8. A Rescue and a Getup

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **Focuses a bit more on Moordryd in this chapter. And for the most: I have no idea how fet-locks are set up and I have no idea if Paynn Incorporated has more than one room. We're getting close to the end…

**Disclaimer: **Must I keep repeating myself? – sighs –

* * *

**Chapter 8:**

**A Rescue and a Get-up**

"It's chasing us!" Parm was screaming, looking behind him with terrified eyes to see if the wraith was gaining. "That wraith dragon is chasing us, it's running fast, and it's not stopping!"

"Yes, I believe I already know that!" Cain yelled in retort, punching in calculations.

"I know this even though I can't see it because I can see things getting crushed and being knocked over!" Parm added.

"I said I know that!" Cain cried. "We have to stop making so many turns! The momentum is causing us to slow down every time we need to brake!"

"What?"

Cain rolled his eyes. "Oh, forget it!" he scoffed. "Nobody understands a word I say!"

"You got that right!" Parm said. "Just try and find a straight alley!"

Cain began processing this information. "Okay, according to my calculations, if we make a left here, we should be on a straight alley, therefore making our dragons gain speed, and we can escape the dragon, er, hopefully. It's bipedal, so that may be a problem, since those dragons are built for speed."

Parm stared at him. "So basically we make a left," he said.

Cain sighed. "Yes, we make a left," he muttered. "You're absolutely right."

Cyrano and Coershun quickly turned left, Cyrano having to brake in order to turn. The alleyway was straight enough, with a few garbage cans and dumpsters here and there.

"Good," Cain said, slowing down. "Hopefully that will get the wraith wondering where we are. What do you think, Parm?"

"This place stinks," Parm muttered distastefully.

"Less of the complaining and more of the helping?" Cain drawled.

"Well…" Parm said, stopping to think. He snapped his fingers. "I can set up a fet-lock."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Cain snapped edgily, to which Parm shot back a dirty look. He pulled out Parm's binocs and began dialing into each function. "Well, we stalled the dragon and we've lost it. I think it's safe to say that we're safe…for now. Just be quiet as you can be."

Parm smirked as he began setting up the fet-lock. "Hopefully after this, we can get back to our normal lives," he said, and paused. "Or not. Didn't the stable brats say something about amnesia or something?"

"Yes, well, to them. It is something like that, but I'm not sure if that's true or not," Cain said. He frowned. "I mean, the chances of amnesia and complete switching of personalities without the exchanging of bodies are one in seventy-eight point eight four six eight four six eight four six and so forth."

"I'm sorry I asked," Parm hissed. He sighed. "Well, it's weird. We're not gonna remember any of this." Cain just scoffed and shook his head almost sadly.

"I doubt you'd want to," he said with a small smirk. Parm softly chuckled.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that's one thing we can agree on."

Suddenly the fet-lock sizzled, snapping and crackling. "Ooops," he murmured, shifting his eyes uneasily.

The dragon's snarls were heard as it ran over to the alley. "Run!" Cain cried.

Coershun exchanged looks with Cyrano, as though to say "Here we go again". Cyrano rolled his eyes as both dragons magged their riders back on and began running.

- - -

"Father, it wasn't what it looked like!" Moordryd argued. In the control room Word was berating Moordryd for helping out Artha and his friends, while Decepshun stood next to her rider. "I wasn't helping them out! Honest!"

"You expect me to believe something like that, Moordryd?" Word growled, glaring at his son. "You were helping them, and I could clearly see it."

"But – " Moordryd said.

"No buts!" Word snapped, cutting Moordryd off. "You are getting soft, easily swayed to work with the opposition. You even had your friend let our prisoner go free. If I catch you working against me again, the consequences will be far more drastic." Word stared into Moordryd's eyes. "Is that clear?"

Moordryd didn't say anything. "I said, is that clear?" Word repeated, glaring so that both he and Moordryd were face to face.

"Yes, Father," was the hesitant reply.

Word stood back up and walked over to his monitors. "Let me go after Artha Penn and his racing crew!" Moordryd cried. "I can get them back, all of them!

"No," Word replied coldly. "You will make no further action involving the stable boy. I can't trust you right now. In the meantime, I need to contact somebody to fix the doors."

He turned and looked at the heap of metal. "And I'm going to make sure that the doors are much more stronger than before," he said. "Now leave."

Moordryd and Decepshun exited the control room. Moordryd muttered under his breath as he and his dragon walked mindlessly around Paynn Incorporated.

"'You're getting soft, Moordryd, I can't trust you right now to do what I want you to do'," Moordryd uttered contemptuously. "Huh! What does he know? Can't he see that I'm trying my best to do something?"

Decepshun grunted. Moordryd rested a hand on her head. "Right, at least you understand," he said softly. He suddenly found himself in front of a room. He pressed a button, and the door opened. Moordryd's eyes widened.

"Father's room?" he gasped.

Decepshun grunted and walked in. "Hey, wait, we're not allowed in here!" Moordryd said, grabbing Decepshun's saddle. He looked around. "I know Father hardly even stays around here, but he said we need to stay out."

Decepshun kept walking inside, looking around, then noticed Word's wardrobe. She opened it and pulled out an orange robe.

Moordryd sighed. "Put it back, Decepshun!" he hissed. "Those are my father's clothes, and you can't eat them!"

Decepshun gave a confused grunt, then snorted and threw the robes at Moordryd, sticking her head in the air with a mock huff. Moordryd rolled his eyes and picked his father's clothes up.

"Maybe I should go after Cain," he mused. "Even if he suddenly got brains, I doubt he'll survive. I'm technically all he's got to rely on as a helping hand." He then noticed a mirror in front of him.

Decepshun was grinning. "What?" he said, and then it hit him.

"Oh, no! _No!_ I am not doing that!"

The dragon nodded at a pair of spare claws lying on a small desk. Moordryd picked one up and slipped it on his right hand finger. He looked at it strangely, then up at Decepshun, who continued grinning, as though she was saying "If Cain ends up getting eaten, it's your fault for not helping, so help now with my brilliant plan!".

He thought about this too. Cain was his friend, after all. If Cain _did _get eaten, he'd be ridden with guilt, and it would totally scale-scrape his conscience. To do it this way, though…

And then Lance's earlier words echoed in his head.

Moordryd groaned. "Oh, for dragon's sake!" he cried. "You know what? _Okay!"_

- - -

"You know, it's kinda hard to go anywhere without Parm," Artha said. He was in his blue and gold Dragon Booster suit, and Beau was the black and gold dragon. "He usually navigated where we went."

"Gee, just follow the crushed-up objects and knocked over garbage cans lying around here," Kitt replied. "I'm sure that'll lead us to that big, evil wraith."

"And we can save Parm and Cain!" Lance grinned as they turned left at a street. "Then we can resume life and eat candy!"

Fracshun laughed, then suddenly stopped short and nearly fell down face-first. "Whoa, Fracshun, what's up?" Lance asked. "Why'd you stop?"

The young dragon grunted as he stared down at his back right leg, which was stuck on a fet-lock. "Well, that's just great!" the redhead groaned, slumping dejectedly.

"Lance, what's wrong?" Kitt asked, Wyldfyr approaching them.

"Fracshun's foot is stuck on a fet-lock!" Lance responded.

"What?" Artha said, jumping off Beau. "Oh, scales, and we don't have any deactivation gear or fet-lock breakers!"

"Any fet-lock cables?" Kitt asked.

"No, Cain has them," Artha responded.

"Well, we can't just stay here all day!" Kitt said as she placed a hand on her hip. "We need to go after the wraith!"

"You're leaving me alone?" Lance cried, his eyes widening.

"Of course, not, Lance," Artha said. "Er, Fracshun, think you can pull your foot off?"

Fracshun tried, and surprisingly it did…with the fet-lock stuck onto Fracshun's foot.

"That is a poorly set-up fet-lock," Kitt said, trying to yank it off. She succeeded and landed in Artha's arms.

"C'mon, guys, let's go!" Artha shouted, jumping onto Beau.

A roar was heard from down the alley. "I think we found them, Artha!" Kitt hissed, eyes widening.

"Lance, you and Fracshun use your rappel gear to get onto the top of the buildings," Artha ordered, turning to look at the two. "You'll be safe up there, and you can help us from above if we need your help."

"Got it!" Lance said as Artha and Kitt took off.

Meanwhile Parm and Cain were cornered in the alley. "How did you not know that we were going to run into a dead end?" Parm yelled, pointing at the lit-up advertisements.

"Er, my calculations must've malfunctioned. Hehe," Cain whimpered nervously.

The wraith had them cornered and was snarling at them menacingly. "Nice," Parm drawled. "Now we're gonna be destroyed or eaten by a large dragon, or if we're really lucky, we'll be dragged back to the insane guy's place and meet the same fate as this guy!"

The wraith gave a roar and charged. Parm and Cain screamed and braced themselves for impact, but just then Kitt Wonn and Wyldfyr bashed into the dragon's leg, knocking it off balance. "Well, now, be glad that we saved your butts," Kitt said as she skidded next to them.

"Glad? That dragon is still alive!" Cain reminded her, and shrieked as the wraith dragon stood back up. Artha and Beau quickly came onto the scene in all their glory.

"Hey!" Artha called, and the wraith turned towards him. "Yeah, you wanna pick on somebody your own size?"

"Take on Dragon Booster," Kitt joked. "His ego is probably as big as that wraith."

"Hey!" Artha snapped.

In his control room Word saw the Dragon Booster and Kitt's gesture. "Excellent idea, Kitt Wonn," Word said slyly. "My wraith, destroy the Dragon Booster first!"

Beau quickly moved out of the way as the wraith charged. Artha pulled out his jakk-stick and extended it. The wraith snarled and charged again, and Artha was mag-blasted towards the dragon, though his jakk-stick didn't seem to have any effect on the large dragon as he slammed it against it. "It's not working!" he groused.

A garbage can lid was thrown at the wraith, who looked up to see Lance. "Ooops," Lance said, he and Fracshun backing away.

"Lance!" Artha cried.

"Do not attack the child!" a voice suddenly yelled.

Everybody turned towards the direction of the voice, only to see none other than Word Paynn himself standing there. He was standing in the shadows, so it was difficult to see his face, but he was there. "Huh?" Artha asked. He narrowed his eyes. "What's Word Paynn doing here?"

"Capture the Dragon Booster," Word ordered, his voice a bit different than usual. "However, don't bother with the child and the others. They are weak, and what we want is the Dragon Booster."

The wraith looked down at Word. "He's going to hurt Artha!" Lance whispered in horror.

"We won't let you hurt our friend, Paynn!" Kitt growled.

"Oh?" he said, and pointed a clawed finger at Kitt. "Why don't you just go? It will save you all the trouble. Now, my wraith – destroy the Dragon Booster!"

"That's it!" Kitt cried. "Wyldfyr!"

The Magma-class dragon roared and mag-blasted Kitt over to Word. Kitt grabbed her mag-staff, and struck a taken-aback Word with it fiercely. He flew in the air with a scream and landed right next to Lance and Fracshun on top of a building.

"Ha!" Lance said, a victorious grin crossing his face as he saluted two fingers at him.

The figure groaned and sat up. Lance's eyes widened and his hand dropped from his forehead. "Huh?" he said. "You're not Word Paynn! You're…_Moordryd?"_

Moordryd glared at Lance, helmet his own but robe and outfit borrowed from his elder blood. "You won't live to experience your next birthday. You know that, right, stable brat?" he hissed, clenching his right hand, which had claws slipped on each finger. He winced as the points dug into his palm and decided just to not clench his hand into a fist.

Lance blinked, staring at Moordryd, who was wearing his father's clothes. Then he burst out laughing. "What are you laughing about?" Moordryd snapped.

"You look like your father!" Lance taunted in a singsong chant. "You look like your father!"

"Oh, be _quiet!_" Moordryd yelled, then turned his attention to the wraith. He was pretty sure his father was looking at him right now through the monitors, fuming mad.

But he had bigger problems. He needed to save Cain, and deal with the laughing stable brat.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	9. What We Consider Normal

**Going Nuts**

**A/N: **Last part. Full A/N at the end of this chapter.

**Disclaimer: **Oh, for crying out loud! – puts up a sign that says "Don't own Dragon Booster. Don't sue me. End of discussion…for now." –

* * *

**Chapter 9:**

**What We Consider "Normal"**

"You know, I'd really wish that this thing wasn't so big!" Artha grunted, pushing his jakk-stick forward. He extended one end and whacked the large wraith's head as Beau jumped back. "It's making things really difficult!"

Lance and Fracshun jumped down, followed by Moordryd and Decepshun, who was called back to her rider. Kitt blinked as she stared at Moordryd's disguise. "Uh, isn't Halloween a bit far from now, Paynn?" she mocked.

Moordryd shifted his eyes at her dangerously. "Shut up," he muttered.

"Paynn, can you – " Artha started, looking at Moordryd, then his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "Whoa, Magna Draconis! Moordryd, why – "

Before he could say another word (and before Moordryd could yell at him too), the wraith knocked Artha and Beau to the ground. It placed a foot on top of them and slowly pressed down forcibly. Artha and Beau grunted and groaned under the pressure.

"This is heavy!" Artha growled, trying to push the wraith's foot off.

"Ar – " Lance cried, but Kitt quickly slapped a hand over his mouth before he could call out Artha's name. The wraith turned its head towards them and lunged forward.

"Oh, dear!" Cain cried, his legs shaking. "Oh, my! Oh, no!"

"We're gonna die!" Parm bawled.

"Get a hold of yourselves!" Kitt demanded, snapping her head towards them. "Okay, we're cornered, Dragon Booster's gonna get crushed and we've got no place to go! Means only one thing!" She got back on Wyldfyr and activated her thrusting gear in reverse, Wyldfyr crying out in fury as the flames shot forward, raising a wall. "Alright, who has a plan? Does anybody have a plan?"

Silence, except for the wraith dragon roaring and Artha trying to get the dragon's foot off him and Beau. "Anybody?" Kitt asked, starting to get nervous. "Anyone? Any_thing?"_

"Oh, I have a plan!" Lance piped up, waving his arm in the air.

Kitt paused for a moment, then said, "Seriously, anybody?"

"Hey, me! Me! Hellooo?" Lance cried, waving his arms in front of Kitt.

"Anybody?"

"Uh, me? Lance Patrik Penn? Kitt?"

"Anything?"

"Kitt!"

"No, then? Okay, we're doomed."

"I hate you, like I hate all girls," Lance muttered.

"Okay, fine, Penn!" Moordryd growled, getting annoyed with the constant babbling of the two. "What's your plan?"

Lance grinned. "Why don't we get the dragon confused so that Artha can get out and we can get more space?" he explained. "It's like that really big and colorful dragon that Word once made!"

"That's ridiculous!" Cain said, pulling out Parm's gadgets and punching in calculations. "It will never work!"

"Before you start babbling on, Professor number two, he's got a point, and for once, a really good plan," Kitt said, raising a finger. "According to Moordryd, this wraith dragon isn't remote controlled. It's being controlled under Word's command, and destroys everybody else!"

"Oh, so that means we can escape!" Parm gasped, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Hopefully without being crushed."

"Exactly!" Lance grinned. "See? Some of my plans aren't _that _bad!"

Moordryd scoffed and rolled his eyes, but there was the faintest smile under his helmet.

Everybody turned to look at Cain. He blinked, then shrugged. "Er…it seems possible," Cain said. He clapped his hands together. "Excellent! I have no argument with the plan!"

"Good, because I think we need our brains functioning right now instead of confused with your big words," Kitt joked. Cain huffed while Lance laughed. The thrusting gear ran out of fuse, just in time. Kitt and Wyldfyr sprinted behind the wraith dragon.

"Hey, you!" Kitt called. The wraith grunted and turned its robotic eyes towards her. "I really think you should get a makeover! Wraith gear looks really ugly on you!"

Wyldfyr gave her owns comments in dragon, and the wraith charged after them, just as Cain and Coershun ran beside it. "Yoohoo, big dragon!" Cain said, waving his arms. "Do you happen to know what the perimeter of a large cage big enough to hold you is?"

The wraith turned its head towards them and was about to charge when Moordryd and Decepshun ran in between the dragon's legs, stopping behind the wraith, who shook his head and cried out in frustration. At that moment Cyrano and Parm charged forward. Ramming gear was activated, and Cyrano ran into the wraith's other leg, causing it to lose balance and get off Artha and Beau.

"Alright, drac!" Parm grinned, skidding next to Cain and high-fiving with him, before shoving the man in the opposite direction with realization as he coughed and cleared his throat.

The Dragon Booster sat up. "Whew!" Artha gasped. "If we were still under there, we'd be pancakes!"

Beau rolled his eyes, as though to say "I could've survived it anyway, you baby!". "Huh, yeah, right!" Artha retorted to the black and gold dragon.

"Ar – er, Dragon Booster! You're okay!" Kitt cheered, she and Wyldfyr walking over to Beau and Artha.

"Yeah, but that wraith is still after us!" Artha said, pointing the end of his jakk-stick at the wraith, who shook its head and was getting up. "We need to release it from that gear! It's dangerous for us and that dragon!"

Everybody turned to Moordryd. "Don't look at me!" he protested, lowering his bottom helmet visor. "I don't want to have anything else to do with these stupid plans of yours, Dragon Booster!"

"Wait!" Artha said. "Wraith gear is weak, right?"

"Not this particular one," Moordryd muttered. "It's gonna take you a lot of work to remove or break it."

"Hey," Lance murmured thoughtfully, raising a finger. "What if we disable the gear?"

"Now you're starting to think like Parm," Kitt said. She paused. "And that's not really a good thing."

"Kitt, leave him alone for a moment," Artha told her. "But then disabling the gear? Uh, how?"

"Now _that _I may be able to do!" Cain said, beginning to punch in calculations, formulas and such into Parm's gadgets. "If I can quickly create some kind of device to make the wraith gear malfunction and disable…" He stopped talking as he went to work.

Kitt rolled her eyes. "This calls for another distraction for that wraith," she said, looking at Artha. "Got any suggestions, Dragon Booster?"

"How about a flash stick?" Artha asked, looking at Lance.

The boy gave a sheepish grin. "Er, I didn't bring any," he said. "And I forgot to grab the blinding device from the Voices back there. Sorry."

"Lance!" Artha and Kitt cried.

"Looking for this thing?" Parm smirked, pulling out a flash stick. It went off in front of Moordryd, Lance, Artha and Kitt.

"Gimme _that!" _Kitt snapped, and gave it to Lance. "Your call."

"Fore!" Lance called as he threw the flash stick, which landed in front of the wraith and triggered off. The wraith gave a roar and staggered for a moment.

"Done yet?" Moordryd said, turning to Cain. "Wraith dragons don't last long to taser effects!"

"I've done it!" Cain said in triumph. "You see, I took a normal level 3 green trapping gear, reprogrammed the binary coding and functioning of the effects, and made this!" He lifted up what looked like green trapping gear.

"A higher level of trapping gear?" Moordryd said, half-understanding what Cain had just speedily said. "That's not gonna work."

"Ah ah ah!" Cain said, shaking his head and wagging his finger. "This may _look_ like your run-of-the-mill green trapping gear, but it's actually connected with my formulas in my calculating device! When you shoot this at the wraith dragon's control gear, I can activate the formulas into effect, therefore disabling the gear and causing the dragon to run free!"

"Er, what did he just say?" Parm asked, looking at Moordryd, who took the device with several formulas ready and was looking over them.

"They'll do!" Moordryd finally replied, grabbing the modified trapping gear. He sighed and looked down at Decepshun. "I'm not gonna like this," he whispered.

Decepshun frowned at him, as though to say "Do you have any other choice? You're in enough trouble already."

Moordryd placed the modified shooter on and ran forward, stopping to aim at the wraith, but the wraith turned around, its tail knocking Moordryd off Decepshun and sending him flying. The trapping gear came off of Moordryd's arm as he slammed into the wall, and before he could fall to the ground, the orange robes he was wearing got snagged by a sign pole.

Lance burst out laughing while Moordryd cursed under his breath. "This is the small little reason why I hate wearing jackets," he muttered to himself.

The gear landed right next to the large dragon's foot. The wraith raised its foot, ready to crush the gear, when Artha noticed it.

"Huh, what's that?" he said. "Beau, mag me!"

Beau mag-blasted Artha to the ground, who slid and grabbed the gear just as the wraith dragon's foot came down, barely smashing his head. "Aim it at the wraith dragon's gear!" Lance called.

"Got it!" Artha said, and shot the device out of the trapping gear, which clamped onto the wraith's gear. The wraith gave a confused grunt.

"Do it now!" Kitt cried, turning to Cain, Parm and Lance.

Cain gave a wide smirk, and he pressed a button on his calculator. The wraith gave a shriek as the gear glowed a pulsing dark purple, and dimmed. The dragon growled and looked up with flashing eyes.

"It's not working!" Moordryd and Kitt cried in unison.

"Oh dear!" Cain squeaked.

The wraith saw Parm and Cyrano and advanced towards them. Parm gave a scream, then looked down, and quickly slammed his feet down on the saddle pedals. Green ramming gear was activated, and an attack ball flew out, zooming at the gear and breaking it off.

The dragon cried out again as the gear fell off and the attack ball zoomed high into the air. The dragon limped briefly, and suddenly turned blue, with white and electric blue streaks.

"Drac, a bipedal blue dragon!" Kitt exclaimed.

"So it wasn't Psi-class!" Cain marvelled. "Huh, looked like it, though."

Moordryd fell off the pole and fell to the ground, rolling next to Artha. Artha looked down at Moordryd. "Hey, Moordryd, how old do you think this dragon is?" he asked.

Moordryd looked up at the blue dragon. "My father said about forty years old, though I guess specifically forty-two or three," he said. "It's almost as big as Abandonn, his dragon."

_So _that's _what his dragon's name was! _Artha thought, remembering meeting Word and the large, orange-colored Psi-class dragon. He looked over to see Beau and the other dragons conversing with the large blue dragon, who grunted something in return, and walked away. "Where is he going?"

"Probably Worktown," Kitt said, walking up next to Artha. "Most of the older and bigger dragons are seen there to work and hang around."

"She's right," Moordryd agreed, then walked away towards Decepshun, who shook her head and flexed.

"Hey, er, Moordryd?" Artha called.

Moordryd turned back to the Dragon Booster. "What?" he said, rather coldly.

"Thanks," the hero said, giving a grin, and he and his dragon walked away.

Moordryd blinked, then rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, Dragon _Blunder," _Moordryd called, checking his nails absentmindedly as he got onto Decepshun. "Until next time, you little pests! C'mon, Cain!"

Then it hit him. "Oh…right," Moordryd groaned.

"Augh, I totally forgot!" Kitt sighed, planting her face in her hand.

"You forgot?" Lance said, his posture slumping in disbelief. "How could you forget?"

"Well, we were in a life-and-death situation, so then you just…argh, I don't wanna explain it!" Kitt cried, looking ready to scream.

Just then Artha and Beau came around the corner. "Hey, the Dragon Booster told me that you guys were here!" Artha said, shifting his eyes. "So you defeated the wraith, huh?"

"Yeah, and where were you?" Lance smirked.

"Oh, I was busy…calling up Dragon City security, but, well, you know how they are," he said, winking at Beau, who grinned. Artha then looked at Moordryd and blinked. "Now I'm convinced that you're Daddy's Boy!" he laughed.

"That's it!" Moordryd snarled, and pounced, attacking Artha, who yelled and punched back. Kitt rolled her eyes.

"Boys will be boys," she murmured, and smirked as Lance shot her a glare. She looked at Parm and Cain. "Well…I guess we'll just have to…get used to this," she said, finding it hard to say the last few words.

Artha nodded grimly as he stopped fighting. "So what happens from here?" he asked.

"Well, I could go with you guys," Cain said. He paused. "Or I could go with Moordryd, or…oh, look at all the possiblities! There's so many!"

"Yeah, and if you start talking big words again, my brain's gonna explode," Parm muttered.

"Enough with the sarcasm!" Cain yelled, looking angrily at Parm. "You're irritating me!"

"Well, why don't we just see what other scientific facts you can come up with, egghead?" Parm snapped back, folding his arms as the two glared at each other.

"Oh, really? Well, I bet you're too _inane _to understand my logic! Grow some brains!"

"And grow some humor!"

At that moment the attack ball from Cyrano's ramming gear came falling down, bouncing off Cain's head and hitting Parm's with the same impact. Both staggered around, and Cyrano and Coershun winced as they both hit the ground.

"Parm!" Lance cried, kneeling next to his friend as he sat up. "Parm, are you alright!"

"I…I think so…" Parm murmured, staring at his hands. "Oh, my…where am I? What am I doing here?"

"Remember, Parm?" Lance said. "We fought off this wraith!"

"We did? A…a wraith?" Parm echoed. Cain got up and groaned.

"Hey, Coershun, what are we doing here?" he said woozily, resting himself on his dragon, who gave a confused grunt. "I though we were attacking the stable brats a couple of minutes ago!"

"Cain, are you alright?" Moordryd asked, getting off Decepshun once again and approaching his friend.

Cain shrieked and immediately hid behind his dragon, whose jaw just dropped open at this sight. "W-W-Word Paynn!" the man stammered. "Uh, Mr. Paynn, sir, we were, uh, attacking the stable brats and were, uh, about to steal their dragons! Just _please_ don't hurt me!"

That really got Moordryd angry. "Cain, it's ME!" Moordryd screamed, pushing the man to the ground.

"_Moordryd?"_ Cain squeaked. "Uh…why are you wearing your father's clothes?"

"Moordryd wearing his father's clothes?" Parm pondered in amazement. "Moordryd helping us out? Why, that's only a one in seventy thousand point eighty-six two four three and seven zero five repeated chance, and yet, it actually happens!"

Everybody else but Parm and Cain blinked. The dragons gave grunts of bewilderment and a couple of jaws dropped open. "By Drakkus and Abandonn…" Kitt breathed, then gave a cheer. "Oh, _drac!_ You know what this means?"

"They're back to normal!" Artha cried happily, hugging a laughing Kitt. "They are sooooo back to normal!"

"_Drac!"_ Lance said, jumping in the air. "Can you believe it, Fracshun?"

Fracshun gave a squeak of approval while Beau grinned, Wyldfyr laughed and Cyrano nodded in approval. Moordryd gave a relieved sigh, slumping on an also relieved Decepshun. "Thank the Magna Draconis…" he breathed.

Parm and Cain exchanged confused glances. "Hey, geek, have any idea what they're talking about, and what the heck is going on?" Cain asked.

"I'm not sure, and don't call me a geek!" Parm snapped, folding his arms, in which Cain just stuck his tongue out.

"Okay, see, you guys got amnesia, and then switched personalities, then you were captured by Word Paynn, and we had to go after you, and a huge wraith dragon chased you guys, and we had to go after you again, and then we defeated it and released it from Word's control, and here were are!" Lance explained rather quickly.

"Say it again?" Parm asked, blinking.

Moordryd sighed as he, Artha and Kitt explained what happened in detail. "Oh, _wow! _Really?" Parm marvelled.

"I don't believe it," Cain murmured with a scoff. "I don't believe it at all. Oh, wait! Now I remember! Or do I?" He began snickering, trying to hold back laughter.

"Remember what?" Kitt asked, arching an eyebrow suspiciously as Artha and Moordryd exchanged glances.

"Well, I definitely don't think you could've done something like that…" Cain snickered. "I mean, it doesn't seem like any of you…"

"Oh, you're thinking what I'm thinking!" Parm said, also snickering.

"What? What?" Artha asked, starting to get impatient.

Parm's snickers rose. "Oh, nothing," he said, and snorted. "It's just that…I remember…you, Kitt and Moordryd…" He burst out laughing.

Cain was also holding his side, laughing out loud. "You three looked totally stupid!" he wheezed. "I mean, why would you stand on top of each other like that, with candy bars, and – and – " He and Parm continued laughing uncontrollably.

Moordryd, Artha and Kitt exchanged awkward glances, then glared at Lance. "Lance!" they snarled.

"Er, hehe, see?" Lance said nervously. "I told you it'd be good for their memories!"

"Yeah, well, I'll make sure they forget!" Kitt growled, and extended her mag-staff.

"_NO!"_ Moordryd and Artha cried instantly, grabbing her arms.

"I don't think they need to suffer anymore, Kitt," Artha said with a nervous chuckle.

"And we don't need to suffer either," Moordryd added.

Beau, Wyldfyr, Coershun, Cyrano and Fracshun burst out laughing. Decepshun rolled her eyes, but she found herself laughing with them. Everybody else ended up laughing as well, and Moordryd tried hard not to laugh, but like Decepshun, it got to him. "Well, I guess everything's back to normal!" Artha said.

"Or at least what we consider normal," Kitt added with a chuckle.

"Yeah…yeah, well, _I'm _going!" Moordryd said, his happier mood fading quickly as he got onto Decepshun, who tried keeping a straight face. "Let's go, Cain!"

"Uh, Moordryd?" Cain said. "I just realized something."

"And what would that be?" Moordryd asked, rather impatiently.

"You helped the stable brats out, you went against your father, you didn't get him any dragons, or coffee, and now you're impersonating him," Cain pointed out. He twiddled his fingers. "Do you realize how much trouble you're in right now?"

"Oh?" Moordryd said, and his eyes widened in terror as it dawned on him. _"No…"_

At that moment a com-screen popped up from Moordryd's wrist-comm, and Moordryd didn't even have to _look _at the screen to know who it was.

"MOOOOOOOORRRRR_DRYYYYYYDDDDDD!" _Word roared, causing Artha, Kitt, Lance, Parm, Cain and the dragons to wince.

"Oh, scales…" Moordryd whimpered.

* * *

**End**

**To Conclude: **Thanks to all original readers and fans of "Going Nuts" for all your reviews, and I'm glad I could make you laugh. And to those who just found this fic, thanks for reading "Going Nuts", and I hope you enjoyed it. ;)


End file.
